
Qass. 
Book 



,.Lam 



THE PHILANTHROPIC RESULTS 



THE WAR IN AMEBICA. 



'J 



PHILANTHROPIC RESULTS 2.^ 

or 

THE WAR IN AMERICA. 

COLLECTED FROM 

OFFICIAL AND-DTHER AUTHENTIC SOURCES, 

VT 

An. American Citizen. 
Dedicated by permission to the United States Sanitary Commission. 




- NEW YORK : 
Sheldox & Co. , S35 Broadway ; Boston, Goctld & Lmoour ; 
London, Trubnbr & Co. 
1864. 



^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, m the year 1864, by 

WYXKOOP, HAULEXBECK & THOiUS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United Stotes, for 

the Southern District of New York. 



PRESS OF WYNKOOP. HALLENBKCK h THOMAS, 
lis Fulton UrMl, New York. 



PREFACE 



In the summer of 1S63, a merchant of 
New York, deeply impressed with the 
spirit of patriotism which had led the 
people of the lo3'al States to pour out 
their treasure and to give their personal 
service without stint for their country, 
was led to procure the preparation and 
publication of a pamphlet, on the philan- 
thropic results of the war, for gratuitous 
circulation abroad. The eagerness with 
which our own citizens sought for copies 
of that pamphlet, which gave statistics 
of the contributions to the wants of our 
soldiers and their families to the spring 
of 1863, induced him to believe that a 
more extended and complete record of 
the nation's philanthropy in connection 



PREFACE. 

with the war would prove attractive 
and interesting. He has therefore caused 
the narrative and statistics to be brought 
np to February, 1864, and, taking advan- 
tage of the Metropolitan Fair for the 
benefit of the Sanitary Commission, has 
publislied a large edition, and presented 
it as his gift to the Commission. That 
it may stimulate the loyal hearts of the 
nation to acts of still greater sacrifice, 
and cause the fire of patriotism to burn 
with a yet higher and holier flame, is his 
earnest desire. 

P. S. — In addition to those presented 
as above to the Commission, Messrs. 
Wynkoop, Hallenbeck & Thojias, the 
printers of this work, have generously 
donated one thousand copies to the Me- 
tropolitan Fair, and several other gentle- 
men a hundred or more copies each. 



THE PHILANTHROPIC RESULTS 



WAR IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

Condition op the country at the commencement of the 
War.— Spontaneousness of the contributions op 
the people. — Advances made by ths State Legisla- 
tures. — Subscriptions op cities, banks, corpora- 
tions, AND private citizens.— Contributions for 

ORGANIZING AND EQUIPPING REGIMENTS. — BOUNTIES 

RAISED BY States, counties, cities, towns, and 

PRIVATE citizens, IN THE SUMMER OP 1862, AND 
SINCE THAT TIME. — MONEY EXPENDED FOR StATE DE- 
FENSE.— APPROPRIATIONS MADE BY State Legisla- 
tures FOR sick and wounded SOLDIERS. 

The history of the benevolent enter- 
prises growing out of the civil war has 
been so remarkable, so unlike anything 
in the previous experience of mankind, 
that it deserves a special record. Ordi- 
narily, philanthropic efforts encounter, 
from their inception to their consumma- 



8 

tion, so nnicli of tiie innate selfishness of 
our race, that a truthful narrative of their 
progress exhibits a succession of painful 
labors, on the part of those who seek to 
promote them, to convince those who are 
expected to contribute of the necfissity of 
the case, and of their obligation to give; 
and while in a good cause the few give 
freely and heartily, the many only yield 
their dole to earnest and perhaps repeated 
solicitation. If the philanthropic work is 
one requiring continuous contributions 
from year to year, the solicitations must 
be repeated, with perhaps increasing 
urgency and vehemence of appeal, or the 
supply of means will diminish. 

But in the philanthropic contributions 
made to objects connected with the pre- 
sent war, there has been such an abnega- 
tion of selfishness, such an earnest desire 
to give, such an unwillingness to be de- 
nied the privilege of giving, as have made 
the time an epoch in the history of bene- 
volence. For about three years the calls 



on the liberality of the people have been 
increasing, and with every successive 
month they have increased almost in a 
geometric ratio ; but the calls have been 
met with so much promptness, and have 
so often been anticipated by their earnest 
zeal, that the greatest difficulty has been 
to direct the full flowing streams of cha- 
rity into such channels as should most 
effectually and economically accomplish 
the objects desired by the liberal donors. 
To show how this has been done is our 
pleasing and grateful task. 

The winter of 1860-Gl, had not been 
one of financial prosperity. Dark and 
threatening clouds hung over the nation's 
destiny. The Ship of State tossed on a 
stormy sea, and the arm of her pilot was 
neither steady nor strong. Traitors and 
mutineers were numerous in her crew, 
and some of them were high in command 
on her quarter-deck. The Secretary of 
the Treasury, a hearty sympathizer with 
the seceding States, and a few months 



10 

later a general in the Rebel army, had so 
thoroughly impaired the national credit, 
that the Government six per cent, bonds, 
which at the beginning of his cabinet ser- 
vice he had bought up before maturity at 
117, could not now be sold, even for a 
loan of ten millions, at 86. The Army 
was sent to remote points, the Navy care- 
fully stationed on the other side of the 
trlobe : the arms intended for the use of 
the citizens of the Union in case of inva- 
sion or civil war delivered to the States 
which were now one after another mar- 
shaling themselves in rebellion to the 
Government, and the weak and selfish old 
man who was for the time Chief Magis- 
trate, acknowledged himself powerless to 
breast the storm. 

Business was paralyzed by the impend- 
ing danger ; the greater part of the 
Southern debtors repudiated their obliga- 
tions to creditors at the North, either 
voluntarily or under the express command 
of their State Governments, and the 



11 

losses thus sustained led to extensive 
bankruptcies. The day laborer, the arti- 
san, the mechanic, the operatives from 
the manufactories, and the clerks from the 
stores sought employment, but in vain; 
there wsls not a full day's v^ork for men 
in any department of labor except in till- 
ing the soil. 

It was in the midst of this horror of 
darkness that the proclamation of the 
President of the United States, announc- 
ing the fall of Fort Sumter, and calling 
for troops to defend the Capital from trea- 
son and rebellion, fell upon the nation's 
ear, and w^oke an instant response in the 
nation's heart. 

There was no lack of men ready to 
peril their lives in the defense of their 
country ; the stagnation of business might 
in part account for this, but neither was 
there any lack of the necessary means 
for supplying the equipments, uniforms, 
and rations of the voluntary soldiers of 
the Republic. The national credit was 



12 

indeed, as we have said, at a low ebb ; 
incapacity and treason had brought it to 
this condition, but the Legislatures of 
most of the loyal States met in extra ses- 
sion, and without waiting to discuss the 
probability of their reimbursement by the 
National Government, voted with great 
unanimity large sums for arming and 
equipping troops. In some of the States 
the amounts thus voted were far beyond 
what they had ever dreamed of raising 
for State purposes. The aggregate 
amount thus advanced by the States 
within three weeks after the President's 
proclamation was $23,240,000, and 
within a year had reached the sum of $37,- 
701,991. Of this sum about $12,000,000 
was refunded to the States by the Govern- 
ment before July 1, 1862, and a portion of 
the remainder since that time. The border 
States, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, 
and Missouri, and the Pacific States, Cali- 
fornia and Oregon, did not at this time 
make any legislative grants, though in 



13 

the summer, Kentucky and Missouri 
made appropriations for Home Guards. 

The large sums thus voted for the 
opening of the war were not unwillingly 
contributed ; on the contrary, men of all 
parties advocated the appropriations, and 
the people who must pay for these loans 
by heavy tax were more urgent than even 
their representatives that the grants 
should be liberal. The action of the 
Legislatures met a hearty approval at the 
ballot-box, and there were no complaints 
of heavy debt or oppressive taxation. 

But it was not the State Legislatures 
alone which came forward thus promptly 
to aid the Government. Nearly every 
city and considerable town throughout 
the loyal States made its subscription, 
both by vote of its municipal authorities 
and by the spontaneous contributions of 
its business corporations and citizens. 
Before the 6th of May, 1861, New York 
city had contributed $2,173,000; Phila- 
delphia, $330,000; Boston, $168,000; 
2 



14 

Cincinnati, $280,000; BuiFalo, $110,000; 
and other cities and towns in like propor- 
tion. An imperfect list, which gave the 
amounts contributed in less than half 
the cities and towns which had sub- 
scribed for the equipment of troops* 
showed an aggregate of $4,877,000. 
The entire amount considerably exceeded 
$7,000,000. From these two sources, 
then, in the first three weeks of the re- 
bellion, a sum exceeding $30,000,000 was 
furnished toward the outfit of the volun- 
teer army. 

Was this vast outpouring of treasure 
by a people who, at the time, were suf- 
fering under financial disaster, the mad 
impulse of a sudden, frantic excitement, 
which soon passed away, leaving only re- 
gret for the extravagance it had prompted, 
or was it rather the deliberate action of 
a nation, to whom its institutions were 
dearer tlian life or property ? The sub- 
sequent history of the war proves that 
the latter was the true explanation of this 
almost lavish liberality. 



15 

It was soon found that the task of 
quelling the Rebellion was one of gigan- 
tic proportions ; that the conspirators 
had been for years maturing their plans, 
and that their treason could only be 
crushed out by the array of an over- 
whelming force. In liis message of July 
4th, President Lincoln suggested the pro- 
priety of calling for 400,000 men, and 
voting $400,000,000 for the work. Con- 
gress responded by authorizing calls for 
one million of men,* and $500,000,000. 
The work of raising and equipping such 
an army was entirety beyond the expe- 
rience of any man in this country ; be- 
yond, indeed, the experience of any men 
of modern times ; for large as some of 
the armies of modern Europe have been, 
no single power had ever called a million 

o Congress probably intended to authorize the rais- 
ing of only 500,000 ; but in reality, two separate acts, 
July 22, and July 25, were passed, each authorizing 
the raising of 500,000 men. Under these acts, 780,000 
were actually raised. 



16 

of new troops into the field within a 
twelvemonth. 

While the Government disbursed liber- 
ally for the bounties, uniforms, equipment, 
arming, and rations for these troops, there 
were other expenses connected with the 
organizations of the regiments which 
were met from private or municipal 
sources, of very large amount in the aggre- 
gate, larger in some regiments than others ; 
but in those from Eastern States averag- 
ing somewhat more than $25,000 (some 
regiments cost over $75,000), and in the 
Western States from $15,000 to $20,000. 
The regiments thus raised to January, 
1862, numbered somewhat more than 
eight hundred, and the amount paid by 
corporations, associations, and individuals, 
for recruiting purposes to that time, was 
not less than $16,000,000. From that 
period to January, 1864, over one thou- 
sand regiments have been raised, though 
at a somewhat smaller average expense. 
Careful inquiries indicate the present cost 



17 

of placing a regiment in the field, aside 
from the Government expenditure, and 
bounties of all kinds at about $15,000. 
This would make the entire cost of re- 
cruiting borne by corporations, associa- 
tionsandindividuals, between $31,000,000 
and $32,000,000, which is probably a 
very low estimate. 

The disasters which befell the Army of 
the Potomac, and the extraordinary exer- 
tions made by the Confederate authorities 
to call into the field as large a force as 
possible, led the President, in July, 1S62, 
to issue a call for three hundred thousand 
three years* troops, and in August, a sec- 
ond, for three hundred thousand more, for 
nine months. An enrollment was order- 
ed, preparatory to a draft, which it was 
supposed would be necessary for raising 
the second quota, but great exertions 
were made by the States, counties, and in- 
dividuals, to encourage volunteering, by 
the offer of liberal bounties, extra pay, 
and provision for families, and in most of 
2* 



18 

the States, these exertions were so far suc- 
cessful, that the quotas were nearly or 
quite filled without resort to conscription. 
The sums raised for bounties, &c., were 
in many of the States very large ; in 
New York, the State offered a bounty of 
$50 ; the county of New York $50 ad- 
ditional, the county of Kings $60, and 
some of the other counties $75 or $100, 
while the subscriptions of wards, districts, 
and individuals, increased the amount in 
some instances to $250 or even $300. 
The average bounty paid in the State was 
computed to be over $150 per man, aside 
from that offered by the General Govern- 
ment. In several of the New England 
States this amount was exceeded. In 
Rhode Island, and in Massachusetts, and 
Connecticut, in many towns, the amount 
of bounty (with the State appropriation) 
was $300, $330, and in one or two cases 
as high as $375 per man, and the average 
for these three States was over $200. In 
Philadelphia an appropriation of $500,000 



19 

was made by the city, and a fund raised, 
by subscription, of $486,270.49 for the 
purpose of paying bounties, and aiding the 
fiimilies of the volunteers. In most of the 
Western States, very considerable sums 
were paid as bounties either by States, 
counties, towns, or cities. In many in- 
stances pledges were also given by weal- 
thy citizens to pay specified sums monthly 
to the families of volunteers. In the 
State of New York, the amount thus paid 
for bounties and aid to families prior to 
July, 1868, by the State, counties, towns, 
cities, associations, and individuals, was 
not less than $17,500,000. In Connecti- 
cut it was nearly $6,000,000 ; in Massa- 
chusetts more than $7,500,000 ; in Ver- 
mont nearly $3,000,000. The lack of 
bureaux of military statistics in most of 
the States renders our information on 
these points indefinite, but when four of 
the loyal States, three of them small in 
territory, expended $34,000,000 for this 
purpose, it is not possible that the aggre- 



20 

gate from all the loyal States could have 
fallen short of S55,000,000. The expira- 
tion of the term of service of the troops 
which had enlisted for two years, and of 
the nine months men, and the necessity 
for bringing into the field an army suffi- 
ciently formidable to crush the rebellion, 
which, though sorely crippled, was still 
rampant, led to the enactment of the en- 
rollment, or as it is usually termed, the 
conscription act of March, 1863, and the 
proclamation of the President of a draft 
for 300,000 men in May, 1863. Volun- 
teering for the filling up of the old regi- 
ments and the organization of new ones 
had been progressing, though slowly, 
through the winter and spring. Tlie 
draf*: did not yield so large a force as was 
expected : only about 50,000 of those 
drawn, serving either in person or by 
substitute ; and the formation of veteran 
regiments composed of those who had 
been for one year or more in the service, 
was resolved on. The United States 



21 

Government offered the liberal bounty of 
$402 to each man who should re-enlist. 
In October, 1863, the Government called 
for 300,000 volunteers, offering the same 
bounty to those who had already served, 
or $302 to new recruits, and in January, 
the President increased the call to 500,000, 
of which, however, the drafted men, and 
those enlisted under the call of October, 
were to form a part. The regiments 
whose term of service would expire in 
the spring of 1854, were allowed to re- 
enlist, and receive the bounty if they 
chose, and form a portion of tlie new 
force. In default of a sufficient number 
of volunteers being secured by April, the 
enrollment act, modified by Congress, was 
to be enforced, and a draft proclaimed. 
These measures led to renewed exertions 
to stimulate volunteering, both for the 
purpose of avoiding the draft, and to fill 
up as speedily as possible the wasted 
numbers of the armies in the field. The 
terrible battles of Chancellorsville, Get- 



tysburgh, and Stone River, the sieges of 
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and the 
severe engagement of Chickamanga, and 
the battles around Chattanooga, had oc- 
casioned great loss of life, and had per- 
manently disabled many thousands for 
future service. Probably not less than 
100,000 Union soldiers were Iwrs du com- 
bat from these and other engagements of 
the year. The rebels, meanwhile, were 
straining every nerve, and by the most 
relentless conscription were forcing every 
man between the ages of 17 and 60 into 
their ranks, and nothing short of the ut- 
most exertion would enable the Govern- 
ment to meet them with equal numbers. 
To facilitate volunteering by increasing 
still further the liberal bounties offered 
by the Government was seen to be the 
dictate alike of patriotism and sound 
policy, and the State Legislatures, coun- 
ties, cities, towns, and individuals again 
contributed largely to this object. In the 
State of New York, the Legislature ap- 



23 

propriated $8,841,098 ; Boards of Super- 
visors, $13,033,291.75; Common Councils 
$3,079,608.50 ; and towns andindividuals 
about $4,000,000 more, making a sum 
total of $28,953,998.45, from that State 
alone. Massachusetts paid $7,625,436 ; 
Connecticut, $2,000,000 ; Vermont, 
$2,000,000 , Iowa, $1,250,000 ; Indiana, 
$3,500,000, and other States in like pro- 
portion. The aggregate of the boun- 
ties thus paid, aside from those allowed 
by the General Government, exceeded 
$75,000,000. 

There had been also expended during 
this period, by particular States, large 
sums for State defense or protection 
against dangers which threatened them 
individually ; thus Maine, Massachusetts, 
and New York had made appropriations 
for harbor and coast defense and State war 
vessels. Pennsylvania, for harbor defense 
and protection of her southern line against 
invasion, and had, besides, met with very 
heavy losses in consequence of the rebel 



24 

invasion in the summer of 18G3 ; Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois had raised troops for 
defense of the Ohio river frontier. Ken- 
tucky, Missouri, and Maryland had raised 
and maintained considerable bodies of 
Home Guards and local militia for service 
in protecting their States from the ma- 
rauding bands of the rebels ; and Iowa and 
Minnesota had raised troops to put down 
the Indians who had risen upon the 
whites in those States. The militia of 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
New York, and Ohio had also been called 
out to the number of 100,000, to repel 
the invasion of Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land, in June, 1863, and though they 
were paid by the United States Govern- 
ment while in actual service, the expen- 
ditures for their outfit, &c., came upon the 
States. The aggregate expenditure for 
these purposes, as nearly as can be ascer- 
tained, was about $12,000,000, without 
taking into account the losses of private 
property by the rebels and the Indians. 



25 

III many of the States, special appro- 
priations were made or a contingent fund 
allowed to the Governor to be used for 
the relief of sick and wounded soldiers, 
either in hospitals, on the field, or on their 
way home. These appropriations amount- 
ed to about $900,000. 
3 



CHAPTER II. 
Contributions for the comfort of Soldiers and the 

RELIEF OP THEIR FAMILIES. — ThE " UnION VOLUN- 
TEER Refreshment Saloon" and the " Cooper Shop 
Refreshment Saloon," op Philadelphia — The 
" Union Relief Association," op Baltimore. — The 
'' Subsistence Committee," of Pittsburg. — Other 

SIMILAR organizations ELSEWHERE. ThE SIMULTA- 
NEOUS IMPULSE TO WORK FOR THE SOLDIERS, AT THB 
OPENING OF THE WAR. — ThE WoMAN'S CENTRAL ASSO- 
CIATION OF Relief in New York. — The origin op 
THE United States Sanitary Commission. — Its pro- 
posed sphere of action.— Dr. Wood's application 
IN its behalf — Authorization by the Secretary 
of War and the President, — Its constituent Mem- 
bers. 

The cry that the Capital was in clanger, 
echoed through the land after the memo- 
rable prochimation of the President on 
the 15th of April, 1861, and the volun- 
teer soldiery who rallied at once for its 
protection against the treasonabledesigns 
of the rebels, came forward in such haste 
that, in many cases, they were not pro- 
vided with sufficient rations or necessary 
change of apparel. To provide these for 
them tasked the utmost energies of the 



27 

patriotic men and women of the country, 
Everywhere the sewing-machines, those 
*' swift -fingered sisters of charity," were 
driven at their utmost speed, and paused 
not even for the rest of the Sabbath, in 
preparing needful articles of clothing, and 
the needle-women, scarcely less swift in 
their labors of love, w^orked till the gray 
dawn streaked the east, and after the 
briefest possible interval of rest, returned 
anew to their toil. Food was prepared 
in immense quantities, but still not 
enough for the hungry mouths to be filled, 
and while all deemed it a privilege to do 
what they could for the soldier, the want 
of system and organization in the work 
was such that there was danger, after all, 
that some would suffer. As a matter of 
fact, some did suffer. The regiments 
which poured in quick succession from 
the Eastern States into New York, and 
from that city into Philadelphia, were not 
only, as was inevitable, crowded ia too 
large numbers upon the transport ships, 



28 

but they were often for twenty-four lioui*s 
or more without food. The spontaneous 
instincts of patriotism among the work- 
ing classes in the vicinity of the landings, 
in both cities, exhibited itself in hasten- 
ing to the cars with food from their own 
scanty stores to appease the hunger of 
these famishing citizen soldiers In Phil- 
adelphia, the efforts of a few generous 
but humble souls thus to supply the 
wants of the volunteers gradually grew 
up into organized institutions of relief 
and refreshment. At first, it was a poor 
man boiling coffee for the soldiers on the 
sidewalk, and his neighbors, as poor as 
himself, hastening with their loaves of 
bread, their slices of bacon, and other 
articles of food, to the wharves, whenever 
the signal-gun told of the arrival of a re- 
giment ; ere long there were two bands 
vieing with each other in their care for 
the regiments which continued to come, 
oftenest at night, on their way to the 
theatre of war. One occupied a portion of 



29 

a large cooper-shop, the other an old boat- 
house, and by and by, as their quarters 
grew too small, other buildings were add- 
ed, and among them, small hospitals for 
the soldiers taken sick on their journey. 
Thus grew up, in a rivalry of good works, 
the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, 
and the Cooper-shop Refreshment Saloon, 
both consecrated to the service of sup- 
plying freely the wants of the soldiers in 
transit to and from the army of the Po- 
tomac. The citizens of Philadelphia have 
contributed liberally and heartily to the 
support of both, and the committees of 
both organizations, composed almost 
wholly of men and women of the work- 
ing classes, have toiled indefatigably for 
nearly three years, often laboring through 
nearly the whole night in the prepara- 
tion of meals, to have them ready for the 
soldiers on their arrival. One of these in- 
stitutions (the Union Volunteer Refresh- 
ment Saloon) reports the furnishing of 
400,000 meals to soldiers, the dressing of 
3* 



30 

the wounds or medical attendance upon 
over 10,000 sick and wounded soldiers, 
and the furnishing of lodgings to about 
20,000 This has been accomplished from 
the expenditure of about $40,000 in money 
and $17,000 in sanitary stores and pro- 
visions. The other, the Cooper-shop Re- 
freshment Saloon, to December, 1S63, 
had expended $40,232-22 in money, and 
had fed 214,169 soldiers. They had given 
temporary attention to the wounds of a 
large number of soldiers in transit, and 
had had over 600 under treatment in their 
hospital. 

The heroic and protracted sacrifices 
made by the excellent people who have 
consecrated themselves to these blessed 
labors of charity and love of country, 
are deserving of being held in ever- 
lasting remembrance. The example thus 
set was very soon imitated in other cities. 
Baltimore, whose Union men had, at first, 
to resist the flood of disloyalty which 
swept over the city, and stained it with 



31 

the blood of some of the noblest sons of 
Massachusetts, was the foremost in this 
work. Her Union citizens were tried and 
true, and in the month of May, 1861, 
they began, in a humble way at first, to 
provide for the wants of the soldiers who 
passed through the city, amid much ob- 
loquy and reproach ; but soon gaining 
strength, they organized the Union Relief 
Association, and up to the 25th of June 
1863, had fed 451,639 soldiers and ex- 
pended in this work of benevolence, 
$61,693.49. Nowhere in the Union does 
the fire of patriotism and philanthropy 
burn with an intenser and purer flame 
than in Baltimore. A similar organiza- 
tion, called the " Pittsburgh Subsistence 
Committee," was established very early 
in the war at Pittsburgh. Up to June, 
1863, over 200,000 soldiers had been fed 
by it. At Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. 
Louis, organizations of an analogous char- 
acter were established in the summer of 
186L 



32 

The proclamation of the President, as 
we have already intimated, evoked the 
patriotic and earnest sympathies of the 
women of the nation, as well as those of 
the sterner sex. Everywhere fair hands 
were at work, and fair brows grew grave 
with thought, of what could be done for 
those who were going forth to fight the 
nation's battles. With the characteristic 
national fondness for organization, Ladies' 
Aid and Relief Societies were formed every- 
where. One, "The Soldiers' Aid Society," 
at Cleveland, Ohio, bearing date April 20, 
1S61, only five days after the President's 
proclamation ; another at Philadelphia, 
" The Ladies' Aid Society," adopting its 
constitution on the 2Gth of April, and a 
third, " The Woman's Central Association 
of Relief, of New York," on the 30th of 
the same month. By the middle of May 
there were hundreds of these associations 
formed. As yet, however, they hardly 
knew what was to be done, or how, 
when, and where to do it That lint was 



33 

to be scraped, bandages prepared, socks 
knit, flannel shirts made, and other work 
of a similar kind performed, they were 
aware, but what further was to be done, 
and how the articles prepared were to be 
distributed to the army without waste, 
was a matter of uncertainty. There was 
a strong impulse on the part of many of 
the younger ladies to devote themselves to 
the work of nursing the sick and wounded ; 
the noble deeds of Florence Nightingale 
had surrounded her with a halo of saint- 
liness which they would give life itself to 
win, but most of them knew little of the 
arduous duties of a hospital nurse, and, 
as yet, happily, there were very few 
sick and no wounded to be nursed. The 
Woman's Central Association of Relief 
had among its officers some gentlemen of 
large experience in sanitary science, and 
of considerable knowledge of military 
hygiene, and they wisely gave a practical 
turn to its labors from the first. Those 
who desired to become army nurses were 



34 

required to pass examination as to their 
qualifications, and then to attend a course 
of instruction and training at one of the 
hospitals and under the direction of emi- 
nent physicians, for their duties. The 
Association was apprised that its first duty 
was to ascertain what the Government 
would and could do, and then help it by 
working with it, and doing what it could 
not do. Other organizations of gentlemen 
were attempting by different, yet in the 
main, similar measures, to render assistance 
to the Government. Among these were 
the *' Advisory Committee of the Board 
of Physicians and Surgeons of the Hospi- 
tals of New York," and " The New York 
Medical Association for furnishing Hospi- 
tal Supplies in aid of tlie Army," both 
new associations, called into existence by 
the exigencies of the war. Fraternizing 
with each other, as they well might, since 
they all looked to the accomplishment of 
the same end, these associations resolved 
to send a joint delegation to Washington, 



35 

to confer with the Government, and as- 
certain by what means they might best 
co-operate with it, for the benefit of the 
soldiers of the nation. 

On the ISth of May, 1861, Messrs. 
Henry W. Bellows, D. D., W. H. Van 
Buren, M. D., Elisha Harris, M. D., and 
Jacob Harsen, M. D., representatives of 
these three associations, drew np and for- 
warded to the Secretary of War a com- 
munication setting forth the propriety of 
creating an organization which should 
unite the duties and labors of three asso- 
ciations, and co-operate with the Medical 
Bureau of the War Department to such 
an extent that each might aid the other 
in securing the welfare of the army. Fur 
this purpose they asked that a mixed com- 
mission of civilians, military officers, and 
medical men, might be appointed by the 
Government, charged with the duty of 
methodizing and reducing to practical 
service the already active but undirected 
benevolence of the people towards the 



30 

army, who should consider the general 
subject of the prevention of sickness 
and suffering among the troops, and sug- 
gest the wisest method which the people 
at large could use to manifest their good- 
will towards the comfort, security, and 
health of the army. They referred to the 
commissions which followed the Crimean 
and Indian wars, and brought to light 
the vast amount of suffering which had 
been needlessly endured there, and begged 
that, in this case, the organization might 
jyrecede the war, and prevent so far as pos- 
sible the suffering which would otherwise 
ensue. They suggested, also, the ap- 
pointment of cooks and nurses for the 
army, and stated that the *' Woman's 
Central Association of Kelief " stood ready 
to undertake the training of both in their 
duties. 

On the 22d of May, R. C. Wood, M. D., 
then Acting Surgeon-General, now in 
charge of the Western Medical Depart- 
ment, followed this communication by a 



37 

letter addressed to the Secretary of War, 
urging the establishment of the desired 
Commission as a needed adjunct to the 
new, extensive, and overwhelming duties 
of the Medical Bureau. 

On the 23d of May, the delegation ad- 
dressed to the Secretary of War, a " Draft 
of powers, asked from the Government, 
by the Sanitary delegates to the Presi- 
dent andSecretary of War." In this pa- 
per the powers desired, were stated as 
follows : 

"l.The Commission being organized for 
the purposes only of inquiry and advice, 
asks for no legal powers, but only the 
official recognition and moral counte- 
nance of the Government, which will be 
secured by its public appointment. It 
asks for a recommendatory order, ad- 
dressed in its favor to all officers of the 
movement, to further its inquiries; for 
permission to correspond and confer, on 
a confidential footing, with the Medical 
Bureau and the War Department, prof- 
4 



38 

fering such suggestions and counsel as 
its investigations and studies, may from 
time to time, prompt and enable it to of- 
fer. 

" 2. The Commission seeks no pecu- 
niary remuneration from the Grovern- 
ment. Its motives being humane and 
patriotic, its labors will be its own re- 
ward. The assignment to them of a 
room in one of the public buildings, with 
stationery and other necessary con- 
veniences, would meet their expectations 
in this direction. 

*' 3. The Commission asks leave to sit 
through the war, either in Washington, 
or when and where it may find it most 
convenient and useful ; but it will dis- 
band should experience render its opera- 
tions embarrassing to the Grovernment, 
or less necessary and useful than it is now 
supposed they will prove." 

Concerning the objects of the Commis- 
sion, the delegation say • 



39 

** The general object of the Commis- 
sion is through suggestions reported from 
time to time, to the Medical Bureau and 
the War Department, to bring to bear 
upon the health, comfort and morale of 
our troops, the fullest and ripest teach- 
ings of sanitary science, in its application 
to military life, whether deduced from 
theory or practical observations, from 
general hygienic principles, or from the 
experience of the Crimean, the East In- 
dia, and the Italian wars. Its objects are 
purely advisory." 

They indicate the following specific 
objects of inquiry : 

*' 1. Materiel of the Volunteers. The 
Commission proposes a practical inquiry 
into the material of the Volunteer forces, 
with reference to the laws and usages of 
the several States, in the matter of in- 
spections, with the hope of assimilating 
the regulations with those of the army pro- 
per alike in the appointment of medical 
and other officers, and in the vigorous ap- 



40 

plication of just rules and principles to re- 
cruiting and inspection laws. This in- 
quiry would exhaust every topic apper- 
taining to the original materiel of the 
army, considered as a subject of sanitary 
and medical care. 

II. Prevention. The Commission would 
inquire with scientific thoroughness into 
ihe subject of diet, cooking, cooks, cloth- 
ing, huts, camping grounds, transports, 
transitory depots, with their expenses, 
camp police, with reference to settling 
the question, how far the regulations of 
the army proper, are or can be practically 
carried out amou<ij the volunteer reffi- 
ments, and what changes or modifications 
are desirable from their peculiar character 
and circumstances? Everything apper- 
taining to outfit, cleanliness, precautions 
against damp, cold, heat, malaria, infec- 
tion and unvaried or ill cooked food, 
and an irregular or careless commissariat, 
would fldl under this head. 

"III. Reliff. The Commission would in- 



41 

quire into the organization of Military 
Hospitals,general and regimental ; the pre- 
cise regulations and routine through which 
the services of the patriotic women of the 
country may be-made available as nurses ; 
the nature and sufficiency of hospital 
supplies ; the method of obtaining and re- 
gulating all other extra and unbought 
supplies, contributing to the comfort of 
the sick ; the question of ambulances and 
field services, and of extra medical aid ; 
and whatever else relates to the care, re- 
lief, or cure of the sick and wounded, 
their investigations being guided by the 
highest and latest medical and military 
experience, and carefully adapted to the 
nature and wants of our immediate army, 
and its peculiar origin and circumstances." 
The President and Secretary of War 
were not at first disposed to look wnth 
any great favor upon this plan, which they 
regarded r ather as a sentimental scheme 
concocted by women, clergymen, an d 
humane physicians, than as one whose 
4* 



42 

practical workings would prove of incal- 
culable benefit to the army which was 
rapidly coming into existence. The earn- 
estness of its advocates, their high posi- 
tion, and the evidence which was adduced 
that they only represented the voice of the 
nation, produced some effect in modifying 
their views, and when the Acting Sur- 
geon-General asked for it, as a needed 
adjuvant to the Medical Bureau, likely 
soon to be overwhelmed by its new du- 
ties, they final 1}^ decided, though re- 
luctantly, to permit its organization. 

Accordingly the Secretary of War, on 
the 9th of June, decided on the creation 
of such a Commission, the President ap- 
proving. The title first given to the new 
organization w^as " The Commission of 
Inquiry and Advice in respect of the 
Sanitary Interests of the United States 
Forces," but was subsequently changed 
to •' The United States Sanitary Commis- 
sion." 

It was composed of the following gentle- 
men: Kev. Henry W Bellows, D. D., 



43 

President, New York ; Professor A. D. 
Bache, Vice President, Washington; 
Elisha Harris, M. D., Corresponding Sec- 
retary, New York ; George W. Cullumj 
U. S. A., Washington ; Alexander E. 
Shiras, U. S. A., Washington ; Robert C. 
Wood, M. D., U. S. A., Washington; 
William H. Van Buren, M. D., New York ; 
Wolcott Gibbs, M. D., New York , Cor- 
nelius R. Agnew, M. D., New York ; 
George T. Strong, New York ; Frederick 
Law Olmsted, New York ; Samuel G. 
Howe, M. D., Boston ; J. S. Newberry, 
M. D , Cleveland, Ohio. To these were 
subsequently added Horace Binney, Jr., 
Philadelphia ; Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, 
D. D., Providence, R. I.; Hon. Joseph 
Holt, Kentucky ; R. W. Burnett, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio ; Hon. Mark Skinner, 
Chicago, Hlinois; Rev, John H. Hey- 
wood, Louisville, Kentucky ; Professor 
Fairman Rogers, Philadelphia ; J. Hun- 
tington Wolcott, Boston ; and about five 
hundred associate members, in all parts 
of the country. 



44 



CHAPTER in. 

The United States Sanitary Commission continued. — 
Its organization. — Its medical publications. — Its 

services IN THE field. — ThE THREE DEPARTMENTS OF 

THE Sanitary Commisson's work. — I. Sanitary In- 
spection OR Preventive service — Its subdivisions. 
—II. General Relief. — How administered. — III 
Special Relief. — Homes. — Lodges.— Hospital Di 
RECTORY.— Other modes op Special Relief. — Re 
ceipts of the Commission.— In money. — In Supplies 
— The latter drawn from the Branches. — Sani 
TARY Fairs.— The Western Sanitary Commission 
— Its organization.— Its work. — Its receipts. 

It is a matter of wonder, that in a field 
so wholly new, the delegation should have 
so fully comprehended the duties which 
would be incumbent upon the Commis- 
sion, and the range of its future operations. 
There were indeed certain features of its 
work which, of necessity, could only be 
developed by the bitter experiences 
through which it was called to pass ; and 
in the end, the great lack in the Grovern- 
ment Medical Service, compelled it to as- 
sume more of the executive and less of 
the advisory functions. Still it has never 



45 

failed to bear in mind that it was created 
to aid by its advice, counsel, and where 
needed, its direct help, the medical de- 
partment of the Government service, and 
has ever been ready to withdraw from 
every duty which that Department, under 
its constantly increasing efficiency, could 
successfully perform. 

Under its charter, it at once proceeded 
to organize its action and to appoint com- 
mittees from its members to visit every 
camp, recruiting-post, transport, fort, 
hospital, and military station, to ascer- 
tain and report all abuses, and to perfect 
such organization as might insure a 
higher degree of health and comfort for 
the soldiers. 

The medical members of the Commis- 
sion undertook to consider the questions 
which might arise concerning the diseases 
of the camp, and their medical and sur- 
gical treatment, from the highest scien- 
tific point of view, and guided by 
the rich and abundant experience of 



46 

European army surgeons,, to prepare 
brief medical and surgical tracts adapted 
to the wants of the volunteer surgeons of 
the Army. Among these tracts, of which 
many thousands have been circulated, 
were '* Advice as to Camping ;" "Report 
on Military Hygiene and Therapeutics ;'' 
" Dr. Guthrie's Directions to Army Sur- 
geons on the battle-field ;" '* Rules for 
preserving the Health of the Soldier;" 
"Quinine as a prophylactic against mala- 
rious Diseases ;" " Report on the value 
of Vaccination in armies ;" " Report on 
Amputation;" "Report on Amputation 
through the foot and at the ancle joint ;" 
" Report on Venereal Diseases ;" " Report 
on Pneumonia ;" " Report on Continued 
Fevers ;" " Report on Excision of Joints 
for traumatic cause;" " Report on Dys- 
entery ;" "Report on Scurvy;" "Re- 
port on the Treatment of Fractures in 
military surgery ;" " Report on the nature 
and treatment of Miasmatic Fevers ;" 
"Report on the treatment of Yellow 



Fever ;" " Report on the treatment of In- 
fectious Diseases," &c. It is no more than 
justice to the able authors of these essays, 
to say that they take rank with the best 
medical and surgical treatises extant, and 
liave been of incalculable value to the 
surgeons in whose hands they have been 
placed. 

Three important committees were ap- 
pointed, one to communicate the matured 
counsels of the Commission to the Gov- 
ernment, and procure their ordering by 
the proper Departments ; a second to 
maintain a direct relation with the army 
officers and medical men, with the camps 
and hospitals, and by all proper methods 
to make sure of the carrying out of the 
sanitary orders of the Medical Bureau 
and the War Department ; and a third to 
be in constant communication with the 
State Governments, and the public be- 
nevolent associations interested in the 
army. 

This plan of organization was approved 



48 

by the Secretary of War, on the 1 3th 
June, 1861, and on the 21st of that 
month the Commission issued its first 
address to the public. This was soon 
followed by an eloquent appeal to the 
Life Insurance Companies, and another 
to men of wealth throughout the country 
for aid in the prosecution of its work. 
The members of the Commission, as such, 
received no compensation, but the pur- 
poses of the organization would require 
a very considerable number of paid em- 
ployes, and would involve heavy expenses 
for publications and supplies, which could 
only be purchased with money. A con- 
siderable number of associate members 
were elected at this time, who gave their 
services in raising means for the oper- 
ations of the Commission, and Ladies' 
Associations, in all parts of the country, 
prepared clothing and supplies of all sorts, 
and forwarded them to its depots. 

The members of the Commission visit- 
ed, during the summer of 1861, the 



49 

different camps of the widely-extended 
armies of the Republic, and carefully in- 
spected and reported upon their sanitary 
condition and needs. 

The necessity of the services of the 
agents of the Commission on the field 
immediately after, or when practicable, 
during the progress of, important battles, 
was felt, as soon as such battles occurred. 
At first, owing to the difficulties of pro- 
curing transportation for its supplies to 
the field, in consequence of the depen- 
dence of the Medical Bureau upon the 
Quartermaster's Bureau for transporta- 
tion, it could not reach the field so early 
as its officers desired, and in some of the 
earlier battles, there was great suffering 
(partially ameliorated, it is true, by indi- 
vidual effort and enterprise), in conse- 
quence. But the Commission soon found 
it necessary to have its own independent 
transportation, and this both by land and 
water ; its hospital transports, its wag- 
ons and ambulances, and its ambulance 
5 



50 

railroad cars. In July, 1863, it added to 
these the plan of attaching to each army- 
corps a Superintendent of Relief, with his 
assistants, wagons, ambulances, and sup- 
plies, to remain constantly with his corps 
and minister to its needs. 

It has, throughout, worked in harmony 
with the United States Government, and 
especially with the Medical Bureau, to 
which it has proved of great service. 
That bureau, which, at the commence- 
ment of the war, was utterly inadequate, 
though from no fault of its own, to the 
vast work before it, is now well regulated 
and admirably organized, having a corps 
of three thousand skillful and responsible 
surgeons, and fifteen thousand hired 
nurses experienced in their duties. 

But even with this large force, trained 
as it has been by the arduous duties 
to which it has been called, there are, 
and must be, numerous instances where 
the most perfect working of the Govern- 
ment machinery cannot remedy suffering 



51 

and misery which a more flexible system 
can relieve. The presence of incipient 
scurvy a^mong the troops on Morris 
Island, and the forces engaged in the siege 
of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, was de- 
tected and remedied by the sending at 
once of large amounts of fresh vegetables 
and anti-scorbutics by the Commission 
to those points, which reached them 
promptly, and arrested the disease, while, 
by the necessarily slow movements of the 
Government, many weeks must have 
elapsed ere the needed remedies could 
have been furnished, and meantime half 
the forces engaged would have perished. 
*' Potatoes and onions," says one of the 
energetic lady agents of the Commission 
in Chicago, " captured Vicksburg." "The 
supplies of fresh vegetables and anti-scor- 
butics sent by the Sanitary Commission 
to Morris Island, saved the army of the 
South," is the testimony of an impartial 
but thoroughly competent witness, who 
spent ten months in the hospitals of that 
department in 1863. 



62 

The work of the Sanitary Commission 
now comprehends the following distinct 
departments of labor: Ist. The preven- 
tive service or Sanitary Inspect ion ^ which 
requires a corps of Medical Inspectors, 
whose time is passed with each army 
coi'ps in the field, visiting camps, hospi- 
tals, and transports ; skillful and experi- 
enced physicians, who watch the perils 
from climate, malarious exposure, from 
hard marching or active campaigning, 
from inadequate food or clothing, grow- 
ing out of imperfect facilities of transpor- 
tation, and report to the Chief Inspector 
of that army, and through him to the 
Chief of Inspection at Headquarters, for 
remedy, or to the Associate Secretary in 
charge, or to Relief Agents under their 
control, and thus see to the supplying of 
the needs of that portion of the army, 
and the adoption of the necessary mea- 
sures for the improvement of its sanitary 
condition. From the reports of these 
Inspectors the materials are gathered 



53 

which are digested into such forms as to 
be of permanent value in the Commis- 
sion's Bureau of Statistics. To this de- 
partment belongs also the corps of Spe- 
cial Hospital Inspectors, selected from the 
most learned and skillful physicians of the 
country, who, from time to time, make 
the circuit of all the general hospitals 
of the army, (now 233 in number), and 
report upon their wants, condition, pro- 
gress, personnel, and capacity for improve- 
ment. The substance of these reports is 
confidentially made over to the Surgeon- 
General. A third agency, in connection 
with this preventive service, is the pre- 
paration and circulation of medical tracts, 
and information important and indispen- 
sable to the officers, soldiers, and espe- 
cially the medical men in the field. The 
titles of these medical tracts we have al- 
ready given, but the Commission has also 
published many giving important sugges- 
tions to the officers and men, not proper- 
ly medical in their character. 
5* 



54 

II. The Department of General Relief. — 
The supplies of food, clothing, bandages, 
hospital furniture, clothing, and bedding, 
delicacies for the sick, stimulants and 
cordials, for the wounded on the field, 
the sick and wounded in camp, field, regi- 
mental, post, and general hospitals, come 
from the branches of the Commission, of 
which there are twelve, having depots in 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, 
Buffalo, Pittsburg, Detroit, Columbus, 
and Louisville. Each of these branches, 
which are variously denominated as La- 
dies' Aid Societies, Relief Associations, 
&c., has its distinctly defined field, from 
which it draws its supplies, and has from 
one hundred and fifty to twelve hundred 
auxiliary aid societies, in the towns, ham- 
lets, and villages, and, in the cities, in the 
different churches, of its field. The stores 
collected by the branch are received at 
its depot, opened, assorted, each kind by 
itself, repacked, and reports of the num- 



55 

ber and amount of the supplies thus ac- 
cumulated, are sent every week to the 
principal office of the Commission, or to 
the Associate Secretary of the Eastern or 
Western Department, as the case may be, 
and shipped, according to orders received, 
to the army where they are needed, with 
the utmost promptness. One of these 
branches (the ''Woman's Central Associa- 
tion of Relief") reported, among the 
stores forwarded from its depot, from May 
1, 1861, to Nov. 1, 1863, 471,318 pieces of 
clothing, 291,810 pieces of bedding, and 
over 85,000 packages of fruit, vegetables, 
jellies, wine, condensed milk, beef-stock, 
groceries, pickles, lemonade, &c.,of a total 
value of $566,831.14, beside $35,551.38 
in money. The supplies thus furnished 
are distributed with great care to avoid 
waste, and to supplement the food, cloth- 
ing, and medicines which the Government 
is bound to furnish — the object being to 
do what the Government cannot, and to 
avoid duplicating its supplies of what it 



56 

can and should furnish. Care is exercised 
also to avoid imposition, while no sufferer 
in need is allowed to suffer when the 
Commission can supply his wants. The 
Commission is national in its character, 
and supplies the soldiers of one State as 
readily as those of another. Nay, more : 
the rebel wounded, when left on the 
field, or in temporary hospitals within 
the Union lines, or when sent to camps 
and hospitals as prisoners, have uniformly 
received its bounty and its assiduous care. 
It has had in this matter, at times, to con- 
tend, both among the people and on the 
field, with that exclusive feeling w^hich 
would limit its beneficence to the soldiers 
of a single State or regiment ; but often- 
est the agents of these local organizations 
have, from the feeling which such exclu- 
siveness has caused among the soldiers, 
turned their stores into the depots of the 
Commission, and themselves aided in their 
distribution to the soldiers, without dis- 
tinction of localitv. The Field Kelief 



57 

Superintendents, already mentioned, who 
accompany each army corps, belong to 
this department of general relief. 

III. The Deimrtment of Special Relief. — 
This department is under the general 
superintendence of Rev. F. N. Knapp, 
Associate Secretary of the Commission 
for the East, at Washington, and of Dr. 
J. S. Newberry, Associate Secretary for 
the West, at Louisville. It furnishes 
homes to soldiers, where shelter, food, and 
medical care and general superintendence 
are furnished for those soldiers who are 
not yet under the care of the Government, 
or have just got out of their care, or have 
somehow lost their status and cannot im- 
mediately regain it — recruits, or men on 
leave, sick leave or furlough, going to 
and fro ; men without skill to care for 
themselves, ignorant, underwitted, or vi- 
cious ; men discharged prematurely from 
the hospitals ; men found in the streets, 
or left behind by their regiments. Of 
these classes, about 2,300 are accommo- 



58 

dated daily or nightly in the homes of 
the Commission at Washington, Cincin- 
nati, Cairo, Louisville, Nashville, Colum- 
bus, Cleveland, and New Orleans. 

There are also belonging to this depart- 
ment five lodges — homes on a smaller 
scale — where the wearied soldier, sick 
or feeble, may await his opportunity of 
obtaining his pay, from the Paymaster- 
General, or landing sick from a steamer 
or cars, and unable to reach the hospital 
to which he may belong, can find rest, 
food, and medical care, till he can be 
transferred to the hospital, or is able to 
rejoin his regiment. There are now two 
of these at Washington, one at Alexan- 
dria, one at Memphis, and one at Vicks- 
burg ; and others are established tempo- 
rarily, as occasion may require, at other 
points. The hospital cars, of which there 
are several, between Washington and New 
York, and between Louisville and Mur- 
freesboro', Tennessee, fitted up with ham- 
mocks in rubber slings, and with a small 



59 

kitchen for preparing the necessary food 
for the sick and wounded, and under the 
charge of a skillful surgeon, belong to this 
department; as do also the Sanitary 
steamers, the Clara Bell, on the Missis- 
sippi, the New Dunleith, on the Cumber- 
land, and the Elizabeth, on the Potomac. 
These are used both for the transmission 
of necessary supplies, and the transpor- 
tation of the wounded. In this depart- 
ment, also, the Commission have estab- 
lished agencies at Washington, Philadel- 
phia, and New York, for obtaining for the 
soldiers, and their families, pensions, boun- 
ties, back pay, transportation, aid in cor- 
recting the soldiers' papers, where there 
are errors in form, or recovering them 
their positions when they have wrong- 
fully been set down as deserters, and saving 
them from sharpers. The Commission 
have also established Hospital Directories 
at Washington, Philadelphia, New York, 
and Louisville. In these four directories 
are registered the names of all soldiers in 



60 

the two hundred and thirty-three hospi- 
tals, and as far as possible, the regimen- 
tal and post hospitals throughout the 
country, and these are constantly receiv- 
ing additions from the reports sent regu- 
larly from sucii hospitals. By applying 
to these Directories, information will be 
furnished to friends without cost, other 
than that of postage or telegram, of the 
location and condition of any soldier who 
is or has been within a year, an inmate 
of any U. S. military hospital. At the 
Washington office of the Commission, the 
names of patients in the hospitals in East- 
ern Virginia, Maryland, District of Co- 
lumbia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Florida, and Louisiana, are recorded ; at 
Philadelphia, those in Pennsylvania hos- 
pitals ; at New York, those in New York, 
New Jersey, and New England ; at Louis- 
ville, those in Western Virginia, Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. 
The officers in charge require the name, 



61 

rank, company, and regiment of the person 
inquired for, and where he was when last 
heard from. About 550,000 names have 
been thus recorded, and the information 
afforded by these directories to the friends 
of the sick and wounded has been of in- 
calculable value, often leading to the pre- 
servation of life, and to the relief of that 
most terrible mental anguish, the torture 
of a dread uncertainty. 

Still another measure of special relief, 
on which the Commission has expended 
more than $30,000, is the sending of sup- 
plies, so long as it was permitted, to our 
soldiers who were prisoners at Richmond, 
and there undergoing the terrors of cold, 
nakedness, and starvation. It also sent 
on every flag-of-truce boat from Fortress 
Monroe, ample stores of clothing, cor- 
dials, nourishing food, medicine, and re- 
storatives, for the poor fellows who were 
exchanged, and who, but for this timely 
relief, would have many of them died on 
the voyage. It has organized a system 
6 



62 

of furnishing fresh supplies to the hospi- 
tals around Washington at prime cost, 
which it brings from Philadelphia in arc- 
tic cars, thus 2:)reventing frauds and the 
commissions formerly obtained by the 
hospital stewards, and furnishing more 
and better supplies to the inmates of the 
hospitals for less money. It has caused 
reforms to be instituted in our own con- 
valescent and parole camps, and in the 
prison camps of the rebels, which our 
Government hold as prisoners, promoting 
the health and comfort of both in every 
possible way. Its agents and superin- 
tendents have often brought off men un- 
der fire from the battle-field, and four of 
them were taken prisoners by the rebels, 
after Gettysburg, and notwithstanding 
the kindnesses bestowed by the Commis- 
sion on rebels, wounded and prisoners, 
were subjected to the meagre fare and in- 
tolerable filth of Libby prison and Castle 
Thunder, for months, when two of them 
were finally released on parole. 



63 

In these labors it has constantly had 
the aid and co-operation of the Medical 
Department, and where it could be be- 
stowed, that of the Quartermaster's De- 
partment, and the generals and command- 
ing officers in the field have, almost 
without exception, given it their hearty 
sanction and assistance. Without these, 
its work would have been fourfold more 
expensive than it has, bu^ even with this 
assistance, it has necessarily had to incur 
large expenditures, and has distributed 
supplies to an immense value. At the 
commencement of its work, when it was 
expected that the war would be a brief 
one it made its appeals to the public for 
fifty thousand dollars, a sum which it was 
thought would suffice to accomplish its 
purposes ; but with the increasing pro- 
portions of the war, increasing means 
were found necessary. While, of most 
descriptions of supplies, their stock de- 
rived from the branches was ample, there 
were some, such as the best qualities of 



64 

wines and brandies, quinine, &c., which 
could only be obtained by cash purchases. 
The transportation of their supplies, 
though much of it was given by raih'oad 
companies, was still very expensive, while 
the maintenance of their homes, lodges, 
offices and directories, required a heavy 
outlay. The Commission, as such, re- 
ceived no compensation, and of its offi- 
cers, the President, Vice-President, and 
Treasurer, received no pay ; while the 
Associate Secretary for the West, the 
only other member of the Commission 
now in service (except the Executive 
Committee), having left his residence and 
practice at Cleveland for Louisville in the 
Commission's service, has a moderate 
salary. The Commission has regarded 
it necessary for the proper performance 
of its extensive, varied, and onerous 
duties, to employ paid agents, and has in 
its employ about 200 ; to none of them 
are salaries paid so large as they could 
receive in other business, but they re- 



65 

main in the work because tliey love it. 
The aggregate of salaries is now about 
S 15,000 per month, and of other expen- 
ses from $30,000 to $35,000 per month, 
making a total sum of $45,000 to 
$50,000 per month. The expenditure of 
supplies varies with the occurrence of 
great battles. During, and immediately 
after, the battles at Gettysburg, supplies 
to the value of $75,000 were distributed 
there. To the army of the Cumberland, 
within ten days after the disastrous battle 
of Chickamauga, 6,000 packages w^ere 
sent ; and immediately after Chattanooga, 
5,000 packages and boxes went forward. 
The receipts of the Commission, from 
its organization in June, ISGl, to March, 
1864, have been in money $1,133,628.28 ; 
of this amount nearly $700,000 has been 
received from the States and territories on 
the Pacific slope, including about $550,000 
from California alone. Aside from this, 
its branches have received in money to 
March 1, 1864, about $650,000, which has 
6* 



66 

been expended in the purchase of supplies, 
in local relief, and in the support of 
establishments of special relief under 
their direct charge. The value of sup- 
plies contributed cannot of course be 
exactly ascertained ; it has, however, been 
estimated as carefully as possible, and 
considerably exceeds $7,000,000. 

During the autumn and winter of 
1863-4, a series of Fairs have been held 
in several of the principal cities of the 
Union, in the interest of the Commission 
and its branches. These fairs have been 
more gigantic in their conception and 
execution, and have yielded larger returns 
than any enterprises of the kind ever 
attempted in this country. The first of 
these was held at Chicago, and its de- 
velopment and magnificent success was 
due in a great measure to the energy and 
executive ability of Mrs. A. H. Hoge, 
and Mrs. D. P. Livermore, the leading 
spirits in the Chicago branch of the Com- 
mission, or as it is now officially known. 



67 

the Northwestern Sanitary Commission. 
The Executive Committee visited the 
principal cities and large to w^ns of North- 
ern Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and 
aroused an intense enthusiasm for the work. 
Contributions poured in from all quar- 
ters, and as a renewed manifestation of 
the patriotism and loyalty of the North- 
west, the Fair was worth infinitely more 
than it cost. The gross proceeds, when 
the account is completely closed, will 
fall but little short of $100,000, and will 
yield a net result of about $85,000. This 
branch of the Sanitary Commission has 
been inferior to no other in efficiency. 
It has furnished, from the beginning of 
the war to January, 1864, over$ J ,500,000 
value of supplies, besides raising large 
amounts of money, which have been 
mostly expended in the purchase of sup- 
plies and the support of the Cairo Agency 
and Home for sick and wounded soldiers. 
The next of these great Fairs was held 
in BostoUj and awakened anew the en- 



68 

husiasm of the people of the Old Bay 
State, an enthusiasm which has not ma- 
terially flagged from the first moment 
of the war. The net receipts, thus far 
(the account is not yet closed), have been 
about $140,000. To this succeeded one 
at Cincinnati, which called forth the ener- 
gies of the people of the Ohio Valley, 
and resulted in a great success not only 
financially but in the increase of patriotic 
fervor. The gross receipts were over 
$263,000, and the net proceeds about 
$240,000. Fairs for the same purpose 
were held soon after at Albany, at Wash- 
ington, D. C, and at Yonkers, N. Y., the 
net proceeds of the first (the only one 
which has reported) were about $80,000. 

On the 22d of February a Fair was open- 
ed at Brooklyn, N. Y., to which the peo- 
ple of Long Island generally contributed. 
Its gross receipts were $42-5,000, and 
the net amount realized was $400,000. 
The Metropolitan Fair, to commence in 
New York city on the 2Sth of March, 



69 

wi.l, it is believed, eclipse in the vastness 
of its receipts, all of those which have 
preceded it, and perhaps yield an amount 
greater than the aggregate of the whole. 
It has enlisted the sympathies, the contri- 
butions, and the earnest labor of all 
classes. These Fairs prove conclusively 
that the people, so far from being wearied 
of the war, and tired of making sacrifices 
for it, are only now beginning to realize 
its magnitude, and to contribute in some 
proportion to their means, to its needs. 
The unanimity of sentiment which pre- 
vails among 1 he masses as to the necessity 
of a vigorous prosecution of the war, to 
the utter overthrow of the rebellion, has 
been, from the first, the controlling mo- 
tive in these liberal sacrifices for the sol- 
diers. 

But vast as the resources and expen- 
diture of the United States Sanitary Com- 
mission, and much as it has done for the 
army, it has not acted alone in these mea- 
sures of relief and solace The Western 



70 

Sanitary Commission, whose headquarters 
are at St. Louis, an organization wholly 
distinct from the one already described, 
has borne an honorable part in the work 
of providing for the wants of sick and 
wounded soldiers on the field, in camp, 
and post, and general hospitals, and on 
the hospital steamers, on the Mississippi, 
Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers. Like 
the United States Commission, it knows 
no State boundaries, but ministers alike 
to the soldiers who come from the East 
and the West, although from its location 
it has ministered only to the western ar- 
mies. It derived its first authority to act 
from the following order of Major-General 
Fremont : 

Headquarters, Western Department, ) 
St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 5, 1861. ( 

Special Orders, No. 159. 

With a view to the health and comfort 
of the Volunteer troops in and near to 
the city of St. Louis, a Sanitary Commis- 



71 

sion is hereby appointed, to consist of 
five gentlemen, who shall serve volun- 
tiirily, and be removable at pleasure. Its 
general object shall be to carry out, under 
the properly-constituted military authori- 
ties, and in compliance with their orders, 
such sanitary regulations and reforms as 
the well-being of the soldiers demand. 

The Commission shall have authority 
midt'r the directions of the Medical Director^ 
to select, fit up, and furnish suitable 
buildings for Army and Brigade Hos- 
pitals, in such place, and in such manner 
as circumstances require. It will attend 
to the selection and appointment of wo- 
men nurses, under the authority and by 
the direction of Miss D. L. Dix, General 
Superintendent of the nurses of Military 
Hospitals in the United States. It will 
co-operate with the Surgeons of the 
several hospitals in providing male nurses, 
and in whatever manner practicable, and 
by their consent. It shall have authority 
to visit the difierent camps, to consult 



72 

with the commanding officers, and the 
Colonels and other officers of the several 
regiments, with regard to the sanitary 
and general condition of the troops, and 
aid them in providing proper means for 
the preservation of health and prevention 
of sickness, by supplies of wholesome 
and well-cooked food, by good systems of 
drainage, and other practicable methods 
It wall obtain from the community at 
large such additional means of increasing 
the comfort and promoting the moral and 
social welfare of the men, in camp and 
hospital, as may be needed, and cannot 
be furnished by Government regulations. 
It will, from time to time, report directly 
to the Commander-in-chief of the depart- 
ment, the condition of the camps and 
hospitals, with such suggestions as can 
properly be made by a Sanitary Board. 

This Commission is not intended in any 
way to interfere with the Medical Staff, 
or other officers of the army, but to co- 
operate with them, and aid them in the 



73 

discharge of their present arduous and 
extraordinary duties. It will be treated 
by all officers of the army, both regular 
and volunteer, in this Department, with 
the respect due to the humane and 
patriotic motives of the members, and 
to the authority of the Commander-in- 
chief. 

This Sanitary Commission will, for the 
present, consist of Jas. E. Yeatman, 
Esq. ; C. S. Greeley, Esq. ; J. B. John- 
son, M. D. ; George Partridge, Esq.; and 
the Rev. William G. Eliot, D. D. 

By order of Major-General John C. 
Fremont. 

J. C. KELTON, 

Assistant Adjutant- General. 

The authority conferred by this order 
was recognized and confirmed by Major- 
General Halleck, who added Dr. S. 
Pollak to the Commission, and still later, 
viz., December 16, 1862, by an order 
from the Secretary of War (Hon. E. M. 
7 



74 

Stanton), extending the field of its labors, 
and reappointing the members of the 
Commission as at first constituted. 

This Commission has not devoted its 
attention to as wide a range of topics as 
the United States Sanitary Commission, 
but has confined itself to the work of 
superintending hospitals, furnishing sup- 
plies, appointing nurses, visiting and 
caring for the sick and wounded of the 
army of the Southwest Frontier, the Dis- 
trict of East Arkansas, the armies opera- 
ting on both sides of the Mississippi, and 
the Mississippi Naval Flotilla ; it has at 
all times acted in concert with the Medi- 
cal Directors and Inspectors of these ar- 
mies, and on account of their efficient 
supervision of the condition and sanitary 
wants of the armies under their charge, 
has not found it necessary to appoint 
separate medical inspectors. It has the 
superintendence of twelve hospitals (one 
for officers and another for military prison- 
ers), having accommodations for about 



75 

eight thousand patients, besides ten large 
hospital steamers and floating hospitals; 
it has established Soldiers' Homes, and 
Soldiers' Lodges, at St. Louis, Memphis, 
and Columbus, Ky., and agencies at He- 
lena, Milliken's Bend, and Springfield, 
Mo. and has prepared, published and dis- 
tributed, a large edition of a " Treatise on 
the Preservation of the Health of the 
Soldier, the cooking of food, the prepara- 
tion of diet for the sick, the duties of 
nurses and attendants, and the organiza- 
tion and general management of Hospi- 
tals." It has, during the year past, given 
special attention to the necessities of the 
freedmen in the Mississippi Valley, and 
its officers have interested themselves in 
the adjustment of vv^ages, and in securing 
just and considerate treatment of the 
emancipated slaves from those who have 
rented the plantations, which had been 
abandoned by Rebel owners. The com- 
mission have expended about $40,000 in 
the relief of freedmen. It has also kept 



76 

a registry of the location and condition 
of invalid and wounded soldiers in the 
Western armies. 

From the commencement of the war 
to May 1, 1863, this Commission had re- 
ceived cash donations to the amount of 
SL-51,381.18, and sanitary stores and 
supplies of the estimated value of S395,- 
335.96, making a total of $546,716.14, 
and the expenses incurred in the collec- 
tion and distribution of this large amount 
were only $8,848.86, or If per cent, of 
the entire amount received and distribu- 
ted. The amount of cash and sanitary 
stores received since that time, make the 
aggregate of its receipts, to March 1, 
1864, about $1,750, 000 since the war com- 
menced. This Commission will hold at 
St. Louis, during the spring of the pres- 
ent year, a large Fair, to replenish its 
treasury, and its abundant and useful la- 
bors give good reason to hope that it will 
elicit large contributions from the patri- 
otic citizens of the country. 



77 



CHAPTER IV. 

Other Sanitary Commissions. — The Iowa State Sani- 
tary Commission. — The Indiana State Sanitary 
Commission.— Similar organizations elsewhere. — 
The New England Soldiers' Relief Association. — 
State and other Relief Associations not connec- 
ted with the National Organizations. — State 
agencies at New York, Philadelphia, Washing- 
ton, Louisville, and elsewhere.— The Ladies' Aid 
Society op Philadelphia. — Citizens' Volunteer 
Hospital at Philadelphia. — The use of Hospitals 

DONATED elsewhere. — AMBULANCES FOR SICK AND 

"WOUNDED Soldiers, built and maintained by Phila- 
delphia Firemen. — Individual Contributions to 
Soldiers in hospitals and on the field, not con- 
nected WITH any of these ORGANIZATIONS. 

Two or three of the Western States 
have established organizations dependent 
partly upon legislative grants, and partly 
upon contributions, for the care of the sick 
and wounded soldiers of their respective 
States, and their families, to which they 
have, unwisely as it seems to us, given 
the name of " State Sanitary Commis- 
sions." There should not be, and with 

most of these agencies there is not, any 

7# 



78 

recognition of State lines in the distribu- 
tion of supplies to the soldiers who have 
succumbed to disease or wounds in fight- 
ing our national battles, or serving in our 
national armies. They are all soldiers of 
our common republic, and it is a matter 
of no moment whether their local alle- 
giance is due to a State on the west- 
ern, northern, or eastern frontier, or in 
the States which constitute the heart of 
the body politic. There are, however, 
services which may be more appropriate- 
ly rendered to a soldier by his own State, 
or its representatives, than by others » 
such as the furnishing means of reaching 
home during a furlough, or of reaching 
his resriment when he has been detained 
from it by sickness ; the procuring of the 
allotment of his pay or bounty, or the 
rendering him contented by care for his 
family. In these, and many other ways, 
a State organization may do much to in- 
crease the soldier's efficiency and comfort. 
The Indiana State Sanitary Commission, 



79 

fostered and prompted by lie energetic 
and patriotic Governor of that State, has 
accomplished much good in this way, and 
up to February, 1864, has expended 
$320,000 in its succor of Indiana soldiers. 
The Iowa State Sanitary Commission has 
been also very efficient. It has expended 
$175,500 to February 1, 1864. An or- 
ganization of a similar character, though 
we believe not with the same name, ex- 
ists in Wisconsin, having originated with 
the late lamented Governor, Louis P. 
Harvey, who lost his life in a journey to 
the field of Shiloh, to distribute its boun- 
ties. It has contributed largely to the 
aid of the soldiers, and its benefactions 
have not been confined to those from 
Wisconsin. In Illinois, there is an officer 
called a Commissioner-General, whose 
function it is to collect stores and supplies 
from the towns and counties of the State 
and send them forward for distribution, 
after each great battle. In New York, a 
State Soldiers' Depot was established in 



80 

July, 1863, in Howard street. New York 
city, and received an appropriation from 
the State Legislature of $200,000, which 
combines the character of a Soldiers' Home, 
hospital, and reading-room, and has its 
couriers on each train on which New York 
and other soldiers come from the army 
of the Potomac, and meets them coming 
from other points, by steamers or other- 
wise, cares for the comfort of the sick and 
wounded, administering, under the direc- 
tion of its surgeon, cordials and nutri- 
ment while in transit, protects them from 
the sharpers w^ho would plunder them 
and in every way looks after their inter- 
ests. It has expended since its organiza- 
tion in June, 1863, about $65,000 in 
money, and has distributed clothing, &c., 
to the amount of over $10,000 more. It 
has fed and lodged over 15,000 soldiers, 
and given aid and counsel to thousands 
more. The plan for establishing national 
cemeteries in the vicinity of our great 
battle-fields, at Gettysburg, Antietam, 



81 

Chattanooga, &c., has been greatly pro- 
moted by its earnest advocacy. 

One of the best, as it is really one of 
the most national, of the institutions of 
this class, is " The New England Soldiers' 
Eelief Association," located at 194 Broad- 
way, New York, and organized April 3, 
1 862. Its founders and supporters were 
New England men and women, but its 
doors have been opened to, and its chari- 
ties lavished upon, the soldiers of every 
State. That a soldier was on furlough, 
or sick or wounded, discharged, or in 
trouble, has been ever a sufficient pass- 
port to its halls, and its sympathies. 
Since its organization, it has received, re- 
gistered, lodged, fed, aided, and clothed 
sick and wounded or disabled soldiers 
from thirty-one States, the District of 
Columbia, the regular army, the navy, 
and the Invalid Corps, to the number of 
about 45,000, and has fed or lodged, and 
rendered assistance to many thousands 
more, who were not sick, wounded, or dis- 



82 

abled. It has a Hospital Record and Di- 
rectory, very full and complete, of the in- 
mates of all the military hospitals of New 
York and New England, which is kept up 
to date by daily reports from each hospital, 
and gives full particulars in regard to the 
location, condition, and final disposition of 
each patient. This register contains about 
40,000 names, and is so complete that 
the Sanitary Commission, in February, 
1864, relinquished theirs for that Depart- 
ment, in its favor. It has an excellent 
hospital for the sick or wounded soldier, 
with a skillful surgeon, careful attend- 
ants, and assiduous volunteer night 
watchers ; furnishes an asylum to those 
unfortunate soldiers who, discharged from 
the service without means, find them- 
selves homeless and shelterless, giving 
them a home till employment can be pro- 
vided for them. It also interests itself in 
procuring transportation, bounties, and 
back pay for the soldiers, and furnishing 
information to the friends of those who 



83 

are sick, or have died, relative to procur- 
mcr their dues. Eelisjious services are 
conducted every Sabbath at its rooms. 
Since August, 1S63, it has had two cou- 
riers at the expense of the State of Mas- 
sachusetts, running between New York 
and Washington, and caring for all sol- 
diers in the cars.. The work of the As- 
sociation has been conducted with a very 
small money expenditure, only about 
$28,000 in cash having been received by 
its Treasurer. It has, however, received 
very considerable amounts of supplies of 
clothing, food, delicacies for the sick, &c., 
&c., probably to a value not less than 
$200,000. It could, however, make a 
good use of a much larger amount. Much 
of the service rendered, including that of 
the Superintendent, is voluntary, and 
without compensation. Indeed, the Su- 
perintendent has, in addition, paid large 
Sums from his own pocket, for the relief 
of soldiers, in cases where such relief 
could not properly come from the State 



84 

funds, or the funds of the Association. 
Colonel F. E. Howe, the Superintendent 
of this Association, acts also in the ca- 
pacity of State Military Agent for the 
States of Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 
mont, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Minne- 
sota, and Indiana, and is authorized to 
render such assistance as may be needed 
to the soldiers of those States coming to 
New York. 

Most of the other loyal States have 
military agents at New York, and some 
of them at Philadelphia. At Washington, 
each of the loyal States, east of the Rocky 
Mountains, has a representative body, 
composed of citizens of those States, re- 
sident temporarily or permanently at 
the capital. Members of Congress, &c., 
who interest themselves in the welfare of 
the soldiers of their respective States, 
raise money among themselves, and col- 
lect supplies from their States, which are 
distributed in the hospitals around Wash- 
ington, or in many cases sent to the front. 



85 
before, during, or after a battle. The 
Sanitary Commission has now become 
the ahiioner of some of these organiza- 
tions, as from its peculiar facilities it 
might well do with all of them ; but prior 
to July, 1863, they had distributed in 
money and stores, the amount, as estima- 
ted, of $1,030,000. There have been also 
similar State agencies connected witli 
most of the Western States, at Louis- 
ville, Nashville, St. Louis, &c. 

There have been a few Ladies' Aid So- 
cieties which have not affiliated them- 
selves with either the United States Sani- 
tary Commission or its branches, or the 
Western Sanitary Commission, preferring 
for some reason, independent action. 
Prominent among them is the Ladies' Aid 
Society of Philadelphia; an association 
organized on the 26th of April, 1861, and 
which has labored assiduously from that 
time to the present, promoting by every 
means in its power the physical and 
moral welfare of the soldier. It has a 
8 



86 

number of auxiliaries in the State, and 
has had its efficient Secretary, Mrs. John 
Harris, in the field and ministering in per- 
son to the wants of the sick and suffering 
soldiers, with, for the most part, two or 
three assistants, since the first battles on 
the Peninsula in the spring of 1 862. It 
had expended in money, to November 1, 
1863, $19,380, and had sent from the 
Philadelphia office, food, clothing, &c., to 
the value of over $60,000, besides other 
supplies sent direct from various points 
to Mrs. Harris, to an aggregate amount of 
probably not far from $200,090. The 
Soldiers' Aid Society of Hartford, Connec- 
ticut, has been another association which 
has acted independently, and has expend- 
ed about $20,000 in money and over 
$50,000 in supplies. In most of the larger 
cities there have been associations of a 
simihir character, which have either dis- 
tributed their food, clothing, &c., by spe- 
cial, and usually unpaid agents, or have 
forwarded them to some of the State or- 



87 

ganizations — at Washington, Louisville, 
&c., or have consigned them to individu- 
als engaged in this work in the army, or 
at prominent points. The aggregate 
amount of such contributions is large, 
though composed of a thousand little rills. 
The aggregate sent to Washington and 
its vicinity, including Baltimore, up to 
July, 1863, was ascertained by careful 
inquiry to be somewhat more than 
$1,350,000, and to Cincinnati, St. Louis, 
Louisville, Cairo, Nashville, Memphis and 
New Orleans, to not less than $1,500,000. 
The amount of supplies of delicacies, 
extra food, cordials, clothing, and bed- 
ding furnished to temporary and perma- 
nent military hospitals, aside from those 
furnished by the Sanitary Commissions, 
has been very large. In the summer and 
autumn of 1862, the civil hospitals of the 
northern cities were filled to overflowing 
with the sick and wounded, and numer- 
ous churches, barracks, and other build- 
ings were temporarily used for hospital 



88 

purposes, and the resources of the Medi- 
cal and Quartermaster's Bureaux were 
completely drained in supplying hospital 
clothing and furniture, and ordinary pro- 
visions and medicines, long before the 
half were fully supplied. Contributions 
poured in freely from the people of what 
was needed, and kitchens were establish- 
ed in connection with most of the hospi- 
tals, in which ladies of the highest social 
position, in their turns, served and pre- 
pared the delicacies which would be most 
grateful to the sick. Papers, periodicals, 
books, stationery and postage were fur- 
nished in liberal quantities to the conva- 
lescent, and letters written to the friends 
of the patients by these volunteer nurses. 
After the Government had established its 
own permanent hospitals (though a con- 
siderable number of them were hospital 
buildings furnished rent free by cities or 
towns) the same course was pursued in 
most of them, but in a considerable num- 
ber the supplies were furnished by the 



89 

Sanitary Commission. The value of these 
supplies furnished by private hands to 
several of these hospitals, in New York, 
Philadelphia, and Washington, has been 
carefully ascertained, and averaging the 
expenditure as proportioned to the inmates 
of most of the hospitals of the period 
(some fared better and few worse) the 
contributions for this purpose could not 
have been less in value than $2,200,000* 
One of these hospitals, now under the 
charge of the Grovernment, originated in 
the philanthropic spirit of the citizens of 
that portion of Philadelphia residing in 
the vicinity of the Baltimore station- 
house, in Broad street. After the grea^ 
battles before Washington, in the summer 
of 1862, trains, freighted with the 
wounded, poured into Philadelphia, and 
no provisions having been made for their 
quiet and speedy transfer to the hospitals, 
most of which were at considerable dis- 
tance, they were temporarily placed in 

churches, or the station-house, often 

8* 



90 

greatly to their discomfort, and some- 
times with a fatal result. The citizens 
of the vicinity, a large portion of them 
mechanics, laboring by day in the busy 
manufactories of that vicinity, were 
greatly distressed at witnessing this suf- 
fering, and resolved, though with but very 
small available means, to erect near the 
station-house a hospital for the temporary 
accommodation of sick and wounded sol- 
diers. A landholder generously gave them 
the use of some vacant lots on the corner 
of Broad and Prince streets ; others con- 
tributed lumber, furniture, heating ap- 
paratus, bath-tubs, and some, money. 
One poor Irishman wheeled a half-worn 
stove to the new liospital. "He had 
nothing else to give," he said, " and must 
do something for the sogers." The hos- 
pital was erected, and furnished with five 
hundred beds in fifteen days, at a cost of 
over $9,000. It was subsequently en- 
larged, so as to give accommodations for 
seven hundred beds, and has, in addition, 



• , 91 

two kitchens, bath-rooms, and a large 
dining-room. It has received over 2,500 
patients in a day, and has lodged more 
than 700 at night. Nearly 40,000 sol- 
diers have been admitted since it was 
opened. It has received, in money, about 
$-23,300 to March 1, 1S64, and expended 
about $20,000. It has received also in 
clothing, food, liquors, and delicacies, not 
less than $30,000. 

The feeling of sympathy and patriot- 
ism which has actuated the masses of the 
people, manifested itself in immberless 
instances of thoughtfulness and tender- 
ness, even from classes, among whom it 
was hardly to be looked for. A memor- 
able example of this occurred in Philadel- 
phia, where, when the wounded were 
brought to the city, and carried, not per- 
haps so gently as they might have been, 
in hired conveyances, to the hospitals, the 
firemen said to each other ; " These poor 
fellows deserve tenderer care and handling 



92 

than they will receive from hired hack- 
men ; we will build ambulances for them, 
and carry them to the hospitals ourselves." 
To this thoughtfulness it is owing that 
there are now twenty-six of these am- 
bulances, luxurious affairs, costing from 
$-500 to $800 each, drawn by two horses, 
and kept always ready in the engine 
houses of the fire companies for the trans- 
portation of sick and wounded, and that 
in these they are carried, attended by fire- 
men, and handled as gently as a mother 
would handle her infant, to the hospitals, 
and without any compensation. 

The individual contributions to the be- 
nefit of the soldiers and their families, not 
coming into the treasury of any organiza- 
tion, were in the aggregate of vast 
amount ; how vast can never be known, 
even with approximate accuracy, but that 
they must have risen to millions of money 
or money value, is past question. At the 
commencement of the war, when great 
numbers of clerks and mechanics enlisted 



93 

for three months in the militia regiments, 
their employers, with very few excep- 
tions, voluntarily offered to pay, and did 
pay, their salaries during their absence, 
and restored them to their positions on 
their return. The same thing occurred, 
though not to quite the same extent, in 
the summer of 1862 and 1863, iu both 
which seasons the militia of New York, 
Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and other cities 
were called out. One of the wealthiest 
citizens of New York, Cornelius Vander^ 
bilt, Esq., presented to the Grovernment 
his magnificent steamship the " Vander- 
bilt," which had cost him over a million 
of dollars, and was at that time worth in 
cash, $800,000. Several of the great ex- 
press lines offered to carry goods intended 
for the soldiers, free ; others reduced their 
prices on such goods one-half, and through- 
out the war, sanitary stores and the agents 
and delegates of the Sanitary and Chris- 
tian Commissions have been very gene- 
rally, we might almost say universally, 



94 

carried free over the principal railroads of 
the country, and the messages of both 
have been borne on the telegraph lines 
without charge. 

The supplying of the wants of the fam- 
ilies of the soldiers, has been to a large 
extent a work of private beneficence, 
and has involved the payment of much 
larger sums than many suppose. So, too, 
the sendino: or mvins^ to the soldiers small 
sums for the purchase of luxuries, tobac- 
co, and the like, has in the aggregate 
amounted to hundreds of thousands of 
dollars. 

The establishment of soldiers' asylums 
or homes, by several of the States, or as 
has been the case in most instances, by 
voluntary contribution under a State 
charter, institutions where the maimed or 
crippled soldier, who is without a home) 
may find comfort and light employment 
when he desires it, is another of the man- 
ifestations of the interest which the na- 
tion feels in its soldiers. The same spirit 
is exhibited, though in a somewhat sadder 



95 

way, in the establishment of orphan asy- 
lums for the children of soldiers deceased 
in the war, and of homes for soldiers' wi- 
dows ; the provision made in many of our 
literary institutions for the free education 
of soldiers* sons and daughters, and the 
readiness with which employment is fur- 
nished to a disabled soldier in any capa- 
city which he can fill. Very often, too, 
it is seen in the shy, respectful, but diffi- 
dent way in which, as fearful of giving 
pain, money is slipped into the hand of 
the maimed, wounded, or crippled soldier, 
not to encourage or sanction mendicity, 
but in love for the cause to which he has 
sacrificed a limb or suffered a wound. 
There is almost universally among our 
people, a feeling of reverence for the bat- 
tle-scarred and wounded soldier, as for one 
who, standing face to face with death in 
the struggle for our country's life, has 
only come off victor by fearful struggle 
and terrible suffering. Grod grant that 
naught in the future may abate this reve- 
rential love. 



96 



CHAPTER Y. 
The necessity for moral and religious instruction 

AND CONSOLATION IN THE ARMY. — ThE EFFORTS OF 

THE Young Mens' Christian Associations. — The or- 
ganization OP THE United States Christian Com- 
mission.- -Its purposes. — The importance of com- 
bining PHYSICAL relief WITH SPIRITUAL TEACHING. 

— The labors of the Christian Commission. — What 
IT has accomplished.— Other institutions for sup- 
plying the moral and religious wants of the ar- 
my.— Bible Societies. — Tract Societies. — Publica- 
tion Societies Missionary Societies.— Individual 

EFFORTS. 

While tlie Sanitary Commission and 
the numerous other societies and associa- 
tions were doing what they could for the 
improvement of the physical condition of 
the soldier, the maintenance of his health, 
and his restoration from sickness, acquired 
ill a malarious climate, the repairing of 
war's fearful ravages, and the soothing of 
the pangs of dissolution, there was a 
strong and growing feeling in the minds 
of the religious public, that these ends 
and aims, though good, and by no means 



97 

to be neglected, were not all which the 
condition of our army demanded. 

The soldier has a soul as well as a 
body, a soul to be blighted and polluted 
by the vices of the camp, or to be kept 
pure and holy for that change of worlds 
which to so many must come with fear- 
ful suddenness. It was needed that the 
Christian influences, from which so many 
had gone forth to tlie camp and battle- 
field, should not be replaced by intoxica- 
tion, blasphemy, and obscenity; that the 
obscene book and the pack of cards should 
not take the place of the Scriptures, the 
Christian narrative, or the religious news- 
paper ; that the Sabbath should not be 
desecrated beyond what the exigencies of 
the service demanded. They would have 
the Gospel, with its benign influences, fol- 
low the soldier into the camp ; they would 
stimulate his courage by giving it a high- 
er and holier basis ; animate his patriot- 
ism by making Christianity its foundation, 
and enliven his faith in the future triumph 

Q 



98 

of his cause, by showing him that it was 
the cause of God. For the sick and 
wounded they would invoke healing mer- 
cies for both soul and body from the 
Great Physician, and point them, in the 
struggle with the last enemy, to Him who 
is the Abolisher of Death, the Conqueror 
of the Grave. 

It was in consequence of these con- 
victions that, from the commencement of 
the war, the Young Men's Christian As- 
siciations, in most of the larger cities and 
towns of the loyal States, had contributed 
largely, not only in money and supplies, 
to the relief and comfort of the soldiers, 
but in personal service. Many of their 
members were in the army, and the 
sympathy felt for them by those who 
remained at home prompted to efficient 
action for the spiritual as well as physi- 
cal needs of the army. After every con- 
siderable battle, members of these asso- 
ciations were dispatched with money, 
sanitary stores and supplies, and religious 



99 

and moral reading matter, for free distri- 
bution to the sufferers. One Young Men's 
Christian Association, that of Brooklyn, 
N. Y., had contributed in this way more 
than $28,000 for this purpose, and had 
given in addition the voluntary services 
of several of its members in distributing 
supplies and caring for the sick and 
wounded on the battle-fields of the East 
and the West. Others had done nearly 
as much, some, perhaps, even more. 

At a convention of these Christian 
Associations, held in New York, Novem- 
ber IG, 1861, it was resolved to organize 
from the representatives of these bodies 
a United States Christian Commission, 
and the following persons were appointed : 
Rev. Rollin H. Neale, D.D., Boston; 
George H. Stuart, Esq., Philadelphia ; 
Rev. Bishop E. S. Janes, D.D., New 
York ; Rev. M. L. R. P. Thompson, D. D., 
Cincinnati; Hon. Benjamin F. Ma- 
nierre, New York; Colonel Clinton B. 
Fisk, St. Louis ; Rev. Benjamin C. Cutler, 



100 

D. D., Brooklyn ; John V. Farwell, Esq., 
Chicago ; Mitchell H. Miller, Esq., Wash- 
ington ; John D. Hill, M.D., Buffalo. 
During the succeeding year Mr. Manierre 
and Rev. Dr. Cutler resigned, and their 
places were filled by the appointment of 
Jay Cooke, Esq,, of Philadelphia, and 
Rev. James Eells, D.D., of Brooklyn. 

Soon after its appointment the Com- 
mission met in Washington, and organ- 
ized by choosing George H. Stuart, of 
Philadelphia, Chairman, and B. F. Ma- 
nierre, of New York, Secretary and 
Treasurer. Its headquarters were at first 
established in New York, and Rev. A. 
M. Morrison was appointed Secretary, 
when it was ascertained that the labors 
of the two offices would be too much for 
one man. Mr. Morrison's services were 
rendered gratuitously. Some months 
were occupied in the organization of 
branches, in obtaining from Government 
and from railroad and telegraph lines, 
passes, and in adjusting the details for 



101 

the vast work which soon began to flow 
in upon them, and it was not till the 
summer of 1862, that the Commission 
was fairly ready for its work ; meantime 
its headquarters had been removed to 
Philadelphia, and Eev. William E. Board- 
man appointed Secretary in place of Eev. 
Mr. Morrison, resigned. 

Its objects, as declared in its circulars, 
were *' to arouse the Christian Associa- 
tions and the Christian men and women 
of the loyal States to such action toward 
the men in our army and navy as would 
be pleasing to *the Master ; to obtain and 
direct volunteer labors, and to collect 
stores and money with which to supply 
whatever is needed, reading matter and 
articles necessary for health, not furnish- 
ed by Government or other agencies, and 
to give the officers and men of our army 
and navy the best Christian ministries, for 
both body and soul, possible in their 
circumstances." 

The Commission is organized upon the 

9* 



102 

principle of voluntary, unpaid agency. 
Its Chairman, a merchant of Philadelphia, 
not only devotes almost his entire time 
to its service, but furnishes office-room 
and storage, clerks, porters, &c., to con- 
duct the business correspondence and 
pack the stores and supplies, free of 
charge. The railroad companies have 
uniformly given free passes to its dele- 
gates, and the telegraph companies free 
transmission to its messages. It has 
been largely aided by grants of Bibles, 
religious books, tracts, &c., from the 
Bible and publishing societies, and dona- 
tions of newspapers, religious and secular, 
from the publishers of those papers ; its 
delegates are volunteers, whose expenses 
of living are alone furnished by the 
Commission, and who spend some weeks 
or months in ministrations of kindness to 
the sick and wounded ; it has also em- 
ployed a very large corps of volunteer 
chaplains to visit the regiments and 
brigades of the army, and manifest their 



103 

sympathy with the soldier, and seek to 
improve his physical and moral condition. 
While thus a voluntary system, it acts 
only under the sanction and with the 
approval of the Government and its offi- 
cers. The surgeons and chaplains of the 
army are among its best friends. Under- 
standing fully that there is sometimes 
*' more gospel in a loaf of bread than in 
a sermon,*' it bestows the loaf of bread 
where it is needed, and the Gospel also. 
Its distribution of its stores of food, 
clothing, medicines, &c., are made with 
the approval and consent of the proper 
officers only, and have amounted to some- 
what more than half a million of dollars 
in value, in the two years since its or- 
ganization. During that period it has 
commissioned 1,563 Christian ministers 
and laymen to minister to men on battle- 
fields, in camps, hospitals, and ships ; has 
distributed 56S,275 copies of the Scrip- 
tures, 502,556 copies of hymn and psalm 
books, 1,410,061 other books, 155,145 



104 

pamphlets, 3,326,250 religious news- 
papers, and 22,930,428 pages of tracts. 
It has received over $400,000 in money, 
and over $700,000 in stores, books, and 
donations of other descriptions. During 
the winter, it has aided the regiments in 
camps to erect temporary chapels, of 
logs with canvas roofs, in which they 
have held religious meetings with bene- 
ficial effects. 

Other religious organizations have in- 
curred large expenditures in the promo- 
tion of the spiritual welflire of the na- 
tional araiy and navy. The American 
Bible Society has donated Bibles and Tes- 
taments, either directly or through its 
auxiliaries, to the amount of about 
$300,000; and about one-sixth of this 
amount has been in grants to the rebels, 
the Bibles and Testaments, having, by 
permission of the United States Govern- 
ment, been sent by flag of truce to the 
rebel lines and received there by their offi- 
cers. 



105 

The American Tract Society, New- 
York, entered very heartily, and very 
early, into the work of supplying their 
books, tracts, and papers to the army and 
navy, and found them readily received, 
and eagerly read by the soldiers and sail- 
ors. They state that nearly every regi- 
ment in the Union army has received 
more or less of their publications; they 
have been supplied from the General De- 
pository of the Society, and its agencies 
at commercial cities, and at camps, recruit- 
ing stations, and hospitals, in all the 
Western, Middle, and Northern States, 
and at camps and hospitals in front, in 
the different departments of the army. 
The secretaries and agents of the Society 
have made frequent visits to different 
(Hvisions of the army, and army mission- 
aries have traversed the camps in their 
faithful visitations. Libraries have been 
established in the hospitals ; hundreds of 
ships of war and gunboats have been 
supplied when fitting out, and their chap- 



106 

lains, pious officers or sailors, are supplied 
from month to month. As a result, it 
may be said that there is scarcely a camp 
upon the field, or regiment in the ranks, 
or ward in the hospital, or mess in the 
navy, where the publications of this So- 
ciety have not been distributed, or where 
they do not find a welcome reception. 
Since the war commenced, the Society 
has issued more than 300 distinct publi- 
cations, with special reference to the sup- 
ply of the army and navy, and the freed- 
men. Of these, there have been printed 
and bound 1,217,000 volumes, 2,735,096 
tracts, and 649,000 cards and hand-bills, 
making a total of 4,602,096 publications, 
nearly all of which have been distributed 
in the army and navy. Besides these, 
there have also been circulated in the same 
quarters, many thousand copies of " The 
Child's Paper," and more than a million 
copies of the " American Messenger," in 
English and Grerman. This distribution, 
and the army work of the Society, includ- 



107 

ing the labors of agents, colporteurs, 
and army missionaries, visiting the en- 
campments and hospitals in the different 
departments, have cost the Society about 
$100,000. 

Not less active and earnest has been 
the American Tract Society, at Boston, 
one of whose Secretaries has devoted him- 
self wholly to the work, of visiting the 
army and superintending the distribution 
among the camps of the East the publi- 
cations of that Society, while its efficient 
Western Secretary has performed a simi- 
lar work in the armies of the West. Both 
gentlemen have exerted themselves also 
in personal ministrations to the sick and 
wounded soldiers. This Society has pub- 
lished a large number of different works 
with special reference to the wants of the 
army and navy, and of these has issued : 
Of bound volumes, 527,000; of tracts, 
2,358,400; of papers, 231,232; or a total 
of publications of 3,1 16,632. They have 
also sent a large number of these books 



108 

and tracts, of a more general character, 
to the hospital and other libraries, &c., 
but of these they liave no exact account. 
The expenditure of the Society in its 
army and navy work, to March 1, 18G4, 
has been $70,229.85. The American 
Sunday-School Union, the Christian Al- 
liance, the Presbyterian Board of Publi- 
cation, the Presbyterian (N. S.) Publica- 
tion Committee, the American and 
Foreign Bible Society, the American 
Baptist Publication Society, the Episco- 
pal Tract and Prayer Book Society, and 
the Eeformed Dutch Board of Publica- 
tion, have also each expended very con- 
siderable sums in the circulation of their 
publications in the army. The publishers 
of religious and literary periodicals and 
newspapers have also contributed, aside 
from those sent through the Christian 
Commission, large quantities of their 
papers and periodicals to the army, many 
of them having a small fund set apart for 
this purpose. The aggregate value of 



109 

these publications and papers, exclusive 
of those of the Tract Societies, is not far 
from $125,000. Several of the Missionary 
Societies have also sent their missionaries 
to labor for the spiritual good of the 
army, and have met with encouraging 
success in these efforts. Of the expendi- 
tures incurred in these movements we 
have been unable to obtain any informa- 
tion. The Societies which have taken a 
part in this work are the American Home 
Missionary Society, the American Mis- 
sionary Association, the American Bap- 
tist Home Mission Society, and the Free 
Mission Society, and perhaps some others. 
There were not wanting, too, instances 
of individual laborers, self-supported 
messengers of good to the soldier, who 
sought, without thought of pecuniary 
reward or profit, to promote his spiritual 
interests. 

10 



110 



CHAPTER VI. 

Personal services in the Aid Societies, in the hospi- 
tals, AND in the field. — ThE SERVICES RENDERED IN 
THIS -VTAY THROUGH THE SaNITARY COMillSSION. — 

Services op delegates op the Christian Commis- 
sion. — Voluntary independent services op clergy- 
men, physicians, and others. — Woman's labors in 
THE WAR. — Incidents. 

We have thus far spoken mainly of the 
philanthropy evoked by the war in its 
pecuniary aspects, as so much money or 
money's worth contributed to some one 
or other of its many modes of relief ; but 
there is a philanthropy, a love of our fellow- 
man, of a far higher character than this, 
and leading to nobler and greater sacri- 
fices than those of gold or silver, or perish- 
able goods. These are all good and in- 
dispensable to the accomplishment of the 
great purposes desired ; but, by the side 
of the spirit of self-sacrifice, the gift of 
personal service, the devotion of an earn- 
est and generous nature to the work, how 
poor and worthless do they seem ! 



311 

In this regard, also, the philanthropy 
of our country has not been wanting. 
History records with admiration the 
heroic spirit of self-sacrifice of the Gre- 
cian mother who sent forth her only son 
to the battle-field with a shield bearing 
the device, " Return with this, or upon 
it." In yet higher colors does it paint 
the fearless spirit of the women of Car- 
thage, who, by the side of their fathers, 
brothers, lovers, and sons, endured cheer- 
fully the horrors of the Roman siege, and 
when suffering the tortures of incipient 
starvation, cut from their heads their 
beautiful tresses, to furnish bowstrings 
to their brave defenders. To our own 
time, and our loftier, riper civiliza- 
tion, has it been given to make greater 
and more glorious sacrifices than these , 
to hallow its offerings upon the altar of 
our country, by moistening them with the 
heart's best blood ; to give the best pow- 
ers of highly gifted natures to the minis- 
trations of a patriotic tenderness, and not 



1L2 

xinseldom to lay down, in these ministra- 
tions, lives of priceless value and of an- 
gelic purity. 

The war has not been conducted with 
hireling troops, mercenary wretches, pro- 
cured at so much per head, and only fit to 
be food for powder. No ! each State has 
given to the service the purest, gentlest, 
noblest blood which flowed in the veins 
of its sons ; its men of high culture, 
genial nature, and lofty aspiration ; cler- 
gymen deeply versed in theologic lore^ 
but yet more deeply familiar with the 
human heart, and its joys and sorrows j 
lawyers, whose eloquence thrilled all 
hearts, as their legal attainments and 
acumen had won for them high renown ; 
physicians, whose skill and scientific 
knowledge made them the leaders of their 
profession ; professors, who, leaving the 
universities whose chairs they had filled so 
well, assumed, with the utmost cheerful- 
iness, subordinate positions, where they had 
been accustomed to command ; statesmen. 



113 

whose words of fire had echoed from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, and caused a na- 
tion's heart to quiver with patriotic emo- 
tion. Promptly and joyfully they offered 
themselves to the work of defending their 
country, not ahvays, perhaps not in a 
majority of cases, in positions of com- 
mand, for hundreds of such men have been 
found as privates in the ranks. 

One of the Ehode Island regiments was 
almost wholly composed of the most emi- 
nent citizens of that little commonwealth, 
and numbered a half hundred of college 
graduates, many of them eminent as profes- 
sional men, in the ranks of its privates. A 
Vermont regiment numbered two score 
men of collegiate education among its pri- 
vate soldiers. An Illinois regiment (the fa- 
mous Normal Regiment) was made up al- 
most exclusively of teachers. Massachu- 
setts sent her noblest sons to the war, in 
all grades of rank, and ofttimes received 
them back, *' dead on the field of honor.'* 
The names of her Webster, Willard, Wil- 
10* 



114 

son, Putnam, Stearns, Stevens, Fuller, 
Manross, and Shaw, with those of many- 
others, fallen on the field of battle, shall 
be held in everlasting remembrance. Nor 
they alone. Every State mourns, but 
with a lofty pride, its gallant dead ; and 
the hearts of kindred, torn by the sudden 
and terrible stroke, yet cherish with a 
fonder and holier love the banner under 
which they fought and died. 

Often, those who have been thus be- 
reft, have themselves proved the most 
earnest and efficient ministrants to the 
sick, the suffering, and the wounded ; dis- 
tilling from their own wounded and sor- 
row-stricken hearts the balm of consola- 
tion to those who had been called to suffer 
for their country, and assuaging their own 
grief by imparting consolation to others. 
Some of the tenderest nurses of the hospi- 
tal, or the wounded on the field, have 
been those on whose souls lay the shadow 
of a great affliction ; w^ho had come per- 



115 

haps at first to minister to their own loved 
ones, but finding them past all need of 
earthly solace, have turned to those who 
might yet be saved to serve their country, 
and to defend its institutions, and with a 
sad but loving zeal, sought their restora- 
tion to health. 

There have been few instances in his- 
tory of a more sublime devotion to a great 
and good object than have been exhibited 
by some of the officers of the Sanitary 
Commission. For a period of almost 
three years, its President has given, with- 
out fee or reward, to its service, the best 
hours of every day, and has borne its 
great and varied duties, and the measures 
for the best development of its rapidly 
increasing powers of usefulness, upon his 
heart — a work sufficient to task to the 
utmost the powers of any man, whatever 
his business capacities. The members of 
the Executive Committee of the Commis- 
sion, all men whose professional or busi- 
ness position made large demands upon 



116 

their time, have hardly fallen short of 
their President in their arduous labors. 
The medical members of the Commission, 
occupying the very highest rank in the 
profession, have given much time, thought, 
and labor, to its duties ; and the Special 
Medical Inspectors, men who have a 
world wide reputation, in their arduous 
round of visiting the Military Hospitals, 
have conferred a benefit on the nation, for 
which money could not compensate. 
The regular Medical Inspectors, too, as 
well as the volunteer assistants on hos- 
pital transports, in camp hospitals, and 
on the battle-field, have given themselves 
to the work with an earnestness and zeal 
which money could not buy, and, in too 
many instances, have sacrificed their lives 
to the intensity of their labors of mercy. 
The General Secretary and Associate Sec- 
retaries have not been wanting in ability, 
energy, and patriotism, and the prompt- 
ness and harmony with which all their 



117 

plans are executed speak well for the 
spirit which pervades them. 

The officers of the Western Sanitary 
Commission, and of the Cliristian Com- 
mission, and the delegates of the latter, 
whether clerical or hay, have shown all 
the ardor and zeal of volunteers, together 
with the capacity for quiet, steady, pro- 
tracted hard work, often under very try- 
ing circumstances, which indicates the 
true character of their patriotism. 

In other organizations, or working in- 
dependently, but with a full appreciation 
of their relative duties to the Soldier and 
the Government, there are many men who 
have won for themselves the undying re- 
membrance of the soldier, and of Him 
who said, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
did it unto me." 

This patriotic impulse to render aid 
and comfort to our soldiers at any sacri- 
fice of time or service, has been especially 
manifest on the occasion of great battles. 



118 

Immediately after the battle of Shiloh, 
and again after Antietam, and Fredericks- 
burg, Stone River, Gettysburg, Vicks- 
burg, and Chickamauga, physicians and 
surgeons, the most eminent in their pro- 
fession, volunteered by scores to go to 
the battle-field, orthe temporary hospital, 
and exerted their best skill for the care 
and healing of the country's defenders. 
Clergymen, pastors of large and wealthy 
congregations, sought the opportunity of 
ministering to the sick and dying soldier, 
of breathing into the ear, fast growing 
dull to earthly sounds, the words of spirit- 
ual consolation, and of receiving from lips 
soon to become silent in death, utterances 
of faith and messages of love. Senators 
and Representatives in Congress; Judges 
of the highest Courts, and members of 
the bar, of the most brilliant reputation, 
sought, in ministrations to these wounded 
and dying heroes, to taste the luxury of 
doing good. Among those not connected 
with the learned professions, too, there 



119 

was the same earnestness and self-sacri- 
fice. 

In more than one instance, men brought 
lip in luxury, with all the advantages of 
high and generous culture and foreign 
travel, but who, ennuyed by a life with- 
out an object, had been ahnost ready to 
regard existence as a burden, have found 
in the work of alleviating the sufferings 
of the soldier their true vocation, and 
have given to it their best energies, realiz- 
ing in their heightened enjoyment, that 

" The act of mercy is twice blessed ; 

It blesses him that gives and him that takes." 

In this work of holy philanthropy, how- 
ever, woman has borne the most glorious 
part. Here as ever, in sorrow and an- 
guish, as a ministering angel, she has done 
her holiest work, and won her bright- 
est trophies. Could the sacrifices, 
the self-denials, the persistent, wearing 
labor, and the moral heroism of the wo- 
men of this country, during the past three 
years, be fully recorded, the narrative 



120 

would be without a parallel in the annals 
of history, for its thrilling interest, its 
deep pathos, and its sublime courage. 
But while such a record can only be 
made by Him who knows the secrets of all 
hearts, there are occasional glimpses af- 
forded to us, which show the spirit which 
has actuated so many of them. It is not by 
any means the educated and gifted alone 
who have been the heroines of this period, 
if utter self-abnegation, and a devotion 
which rises above all else to comprehend 
alone the ideas of God and our country, 
constitute heroism. In that little ham- 
let on the bleak and barren hills of New 
England, far away from the great city, or 
even the populous village, you will find a 
mother and daughter living in a humble 
dwelliiiG:. The husband and father has 
lain for many years 'neath the sod in the 
graveyard on the hill slope ; the onl}- 
son, the hope and joy of both mother and 
sister, at the call of duty, gave himself to 
the service of his country, and left those 



121 

whom he loved as his own life to toil at 
home alone. By and by, at Williams- 
burg, or Fair Oaks, or in that terrible re- 
treat to James River, or at Cedar Moun- 
tain, it matters not which, the swift speed- 
ing bullet laid him low, and after days, 
or it may be weeks, of terrible suffer- 
ing, he gave up his young life on the al- 
tar of his country. The shock was a 
terrible one to those lone dwellers on the 
snowy hills. He was their all ; but it 
was for the cause of Freedom, of Right, 
of God ; and hushing the wild beating of 
their hearts, they bestir themselves, in 
their deep poverty, to do something for 
the cause for which their young hero has 
given his life. It is but little, for they 
are sorely straitened; but the mother, 
though her heart is wrapped in the dark- 
ness of sorrow, saves the expense of 
mourning apparel, and the daughter 
turns her faded dress ; the little earnings 
of both are carefully hoarded, the pretty 

chintz curtains which had made their 
U 



122 

humble room cheerful are replaced by- 
paper, and by dint of constant saving, 
enough money is raised to purchase the 
other materials for a hospital quilt, a pair 
of socks, and a shirt to be sent to the 
Relief Association, to give comfort to 
some poor wounded soldier tossing in 
agony in some distant hospital. Surely, 
He who noticed the widow's two mites 
which made a farthing, will record in 
His Book such deeds of love as these. 

Take another case, as reported by one 
of the Ladies' Aid Societies. In one of 
the mountainous counties at the North, 
in a scattered farming district, lived a 
mother and daughters, too poor to obtain 
by purchase the material for making hos- 
pital clothing, yet resolved to do some- 
thing for the soldier. Twelve miles dis- 
tant, over the mountain, and accessible 
only by a road almost impassable, was 
the county town, in which there was a 
Relief Association. Borrowing a neigh- 
bor's horse, either the mother or daugh- 



123 

ters came regularly every fortnight, to 
procure from this society garments to 
make up for the hospital. They had no 
money ; but though the care of their 
few acres of sterile land devolved up- 
on them alone, they could and would 
find time to work for the sufferers in 
the hospitals. At length, curious to 
know the secret of such fervor in the 
cause, one of the Managers of the Associa- 
tion addressed them : *' You have some 
relative, a son, or brother, or father, in 
the war, I suppose?" "No!" was the 
reply, "not now; our only brother fell 
at Ball's Bluff." " Why, then," asked 
the Manager, " do you feel so deep an 
interest in this work ?" " Our country's 
cause is the cause of God, and we would 
do what we can, for His sake," was the 
sublime reply. 

Or take yet again this incident of the 
Great Northwestern Sanitary Fair, rela- 
ted by Rev. F. N. Knapp : " Among the 
wagons which had drawn up near the 



124 

rooms of the Sanitary Commission to un- 
load their stores, was one peculiar for its 
exceeding look of poverty ; it was worn 
and mended, and was originally made 
merely of poles. It was drawn by three 
horses, which had seen much of life, but 
little grain. The driver was a man past 
middle age, with the clothes and look of 
one who toiled hard, but he had a 
thoughtful and kindly face. He sat 
there quietly waiting his turn to unload. 
By his side, with feet over the front of 
the wagon, for it was filled very full, was 
his wife, a silent, worn-looking woman ; 
near the rear of the wagon was a girl of 
fifteen, perhaps, and her sister, dressed 
in black, carrying in her arms a little 
child. Some one said to the man (after 
asking the woman with the child if she 
would not go into the Commission Rooms 
and get warm), ' My friend, you seem to 
have quite a load, here, of vegetables. 
Now I am curious to know what good 
things you are bringing the soldiers; will 



125 

you tell me what you have V ' Yes,' 
said he ; ' here are potatoes, and here are 
three bags of onions, and there are some 
rutabaga, and there a few turnips, and 
that is a small bag of meal, and you can 
see the cabbages fill in ; and that box 
with slats has some ducks in it, which 
one of them brought in.' ' Oh, then, this 
isn't all your load alone, is it?' * Why, 
no! Our region, just where I live, is 
rather a hard soil, and we haven't any 
of us much to spare, any way ; yet for 
this business we could have raked up as 
much again as this is, if we had had time. 
But we didn't get the notice that the 
wagons were going in, till last night 
about eight o'clock, and it was dark and 
raining — so I and my wife and the girls 
could only go round to five or six of the 
neighbors, within a mile or so ; but we 
did the best we could. We worked 
pretty much all the night, and loaded, 
so as to be able to get out to the main 
road and start with the rest of them this 
11* 



126 

morning. But I can't help it, if it is 
little ; its something for those soldiers.' 
* Have you a son in the army?' * No,' 
he answered, slowly, after turning round 
and looking at his wife. ' No, I haven't, 
now^ but we had one there once ; he's 
buried down by Stone River ; he was 
shot there. And that isn't just so, 
either. We called him our boy, but he 
was only our adopted son ; we took him 
when he was little, so he was just the 
same as our boy, and' (pointing over his 
shoulder, without looking back) * that's 
his wife, there, with the baby. But I 
shouldn't bring these things any quicker 
if he were alive now, and in the army. 
I don't know that I should think so much 
as I do now about the boys away off 
there.' " 

In none of these cases, nor in the thou- 
sands of others of which they are but the 
representatives, could the desire for ap- 
plause or fame have had any part in this 
earnest devotion to the cause of their 



127 

country ; there was no room for that; but 
the toil, hard, wearing toil, unmitigated 
by aught of poetry or romance, was one 
of the noble expressions of a self-sacrificing 
philanthropy. 

Among those who deserve a high place 
on the roll of Christian philanthropists 
are the hundreds of noble women, who, 
for the space of three years past, have 
toiled on regularly, week after week, go- 
ing to their work at the rooms of the 
Ladies' Aid Societies, or to their self-im- 
})Osed labors at the hospitals or Homes for 
Soldiers, as regularly as the merchant or 
banker goes to his business, and sacri- 
ficing to it the enjoyments of luxurious 
homes more cheerfully than if it were a 
festive gathering. To say that they have 
done this work of Christian love as a duty, 
is a phrase too cold ; they have deemed it a 
privilege, a matter of rejoicing, thus to 
make sacrifices for their country. 

Nor would our record approach com- 
pleteness did we fail to give due honor to 



128 

those gifted women, who, delicately 
trained and nurtured, have gone from all 
the allurements of home, the enjoyments 
of society, the endearments of friends, to 
minister personally to the fevered and the 
maimed, in the crowded hospital, in the 
camp, or amid the horrors of the battle- 
field. We have not the space, nor is it 
consonant with the purpose of this work, 
to give the names of the scores of these 
heroines, but we can briefly indicate their 
abundant labors.* 

They have, many of them, been mem- 
bers of families of the highest social 
position in the Northern States, refined, 
cultivated, winning, and womanly ; and 
have left homes where they were tender- 
ly cherished, and surrounded by every 



<* It is gratifying to learn, as we do from a recently 
published announcement, that a biographical record 
of the deeds of most of these ' ' Heroines of the Civil 
War' ' is in preparation by a thoroughly competent 
writer, and is to be published soon by Mr. N. C. Miller, 
of New York. 



129 

luxury; and for months, and sometimes for 
years, have encountered the inconveniences 
of hospital life, or the still greater discom- 
forts of life in the camp, an ambulance or 
a tent their home by day or by night, and 
the soldiers' ration, often scanty and some- 
times unpalatable, their only fare — to 
"dress the sores, bind up the wounds, 
cheer the spirits, and medicine the mala- 
dies of those whom sickness and battle 
have stricken." " Why," it is often asked, 
" should these women, thus richly en- 
dowed, have gone forth to this work, 
when others, perhaps, equally competent, 
have remained at home in ease and com- 
fort ?^' " Because," we answer, '' the love 
of country and of our glorious institutions 
burned so fiercely in their hearts, that 
they must act ; the necessity to do some- 
thing for those who were doing so much 
for their country's preservation, was like 
a fire in their bones ; they could not rest." 
To many of them, too, there came the 
conviction that this struggle wasintimate- 



130 

ly connected with that high and peculiar 
civilization whose crowning glory it has 
been to elevate Woman. The success of 
the rebellion, they felt, was the triumph 
of barbarism ; its result would be to de- 
prive the sex of the opportunity for free 
and full development, intellectual and 
moral, and for a constant and beneficent 
use of all those admirable powers which 
God has given to woman. It was then, 
also, in behalf of their sex, whose social, 
intellectual, and moral position was im- 
periled by the triumph of the slaveholding 
power, and would be degraded by its des- 
potism, if it were successful, that these 
noblewomen have done their utmost to 
succor and encourage their fathers, broth- 
ers, sons, or lovers, in the defense of a na- 
tion's honor, and a nation's liberties. Glori- 
ously have they acquitted themselves in 
this work. Amid almost superhuman labors 
and fatigues, amid perils by water and by 
land, in temporary hospitals, where the ene- 
my's shot and shell came hurtling through 



131 

the walls, and now and then killed some 
wounded and helpless patient ; in the rear 
on battle-fields where the heavy missiles 
from rifled cannon ploughed deep fur- 
rows around them; on burning sands, 
amid the fierce blaze of the summer's sun, 
at Morris Island, or on the gulf coast, or 
tossing upon the stormy Atlantic in hos- 
pital ships, they have never faltered ; and 
in more than one instance have maintained 
their position and continued their ministry 
when the surgeons have fled in terror, and 
the army itself had commenced a disor- 
derly retreat. The work accomplished 
by some of these women on the hospital 
transports, in the waters that bound the 
Peninsula, in the summer of 1862, was 
sublimer in its heroism and self-sacrifice 
than any battle of the war, and was yet 
more beautiful for the spirit of cheerful- 
ness and alacrity in which it was per- 
formed. Not less sublime was the devo- 
tion which was manifested at Shiloh, at 
Harrison's Landing, at Antietam, at 



132 

Fredericksburg, at Stone Kiver, and at 
Gettysburg. It is no matter of wonder 
that the soldiers have given to so many of 
these women the name of " angel," nor 
that a rough but large hearted soldier, ly- 
ing in one of the hospitals of St. Louis, 
should have said to the gentle nurse who 
had so tenderly soothed his pain, "When 
you get to the gate of heaven, they won't 
ask you for a countersign ; they'll let you 
right in!" 

Several of these heroines are the widows 
of Generals slain in the service, who, hav- 
ing themselves tasted the bitter cup of 
anguish, delight to allay as far as possible 
the suffering of others ; one is the widow 
of a patriotic Governor of one of the West- 
ern States, who lost his life in the attempt 
to bring relief to the wounded after the 
battle of Shiloh ; others have lost sons or 
brothers in the conflict, but many have 
been led to the work only by that broader 
sympathy which includes all their patri- 
otic countrymen as kinsmen in the cause 
of liberty. 



133 

The history and hibors of each are full 
of interest and pathos, but we cannot 
give them. Of one, a woman of rare 
gifts, and extraordinary culture, young 
and gentle, and of one of the noblest and 
best families of Massachusetts, we may 
say, that from the day after the battle of 
Bull Run, when she pressed the hands of 
the wounded soldiers of that fight, in an 
agony of distress not less than their own, 
and with streaming eyes ministered to 
their necessities, up to the present time — 
in all the battles of Virginia and Mary- 
land, and later, in the deep sands, and un- 
der the burning sun of Morris Island, amid 
the thunders of the bombardment of Fort 
Sumter, and the terrible slaughter in the 
assaults on Wagner — her whole thoughts, 
time, and energies, have been given to the 
care and help of the sick and wounded 
soldiers of our country, and nothing has 
been able to draw her from this blessed 
work. 

Of another, a matron of high social 
12 



134 

position, it may be said, that on the Pe- 
ninsula and at Harrison's Landing, before 
Washington, at South Mountain, and 
Antietam, at Fredericksburg, Chancellors- 
ville, and Gettysburg ; and later still, after 
the battles of Chickamauga and Chatta- 
nooga, she has toiled as few women could 
have done, to cheer the spirits and to 
soothe the anguish of the soldier, to 
give spiritual instruction and consolation 
to the dying, and to lead them to the 
source of all comfort. She has encoun- 
tered perils and dangers, from which most 
women would have shrunk ; has become 
familiar with the horrors of war, whether 
exhibited on the field of carnage or in 
the crowded hospital ; has more than once 
made her way, with garments soaked in 
human gore, through the long lines of 
wounded and dying soldiers, kneeling by 
the side of each, to impart some word of 
comfort, or to wipe the death-damps from 
their brows. Amid all these scenes, she 
retains the modesty, the retiring diffi- 



135 

dence, and the unwillingness to speak of 
herself, or her labors, which characterizes 
the true heroine. 

There are others, and many of them, 
as deserving, perhaps, of a record in our 
pages for their sacrifices and labors, but 
our limits do not permit us to name them 
here. Of all of them, it may be said as 
of her who anointed the Saviour's feet, 
" she hath done what she could." 



136 



CHAPTtm vn. 

CONTlilBUTIONS AND LABORS IN BEHALF OF THE FrEEDMEN. 
— Societies ORGANIZED FOR THEIR RELIEF AND INSTRUC- 
TION. — The Freedmen's Bureau at Washington. — 
The persecution of people of color in New York 
during the july riots. — prompt and liberal re- 
parations made by voluntary contributions of 
CITIZENS. — Funds also raised for Police who had 

AIDED IN PUTTING DOWN THE RIOT. — ThE WhITE 

Refugees and their needs. 

The claims of another class, reduced to 
destitution by the war, to be relieved, 
were beginning to press upon the consid- 
eration of the charitable. In those sec- 
tions of the Southern States, invaded and 
occupied by our troops, the slaveholders, 
when compelled, from their active par- 
ticipation in the rebellion, to abandon 
their estates, left, for the most part, the 
feeble and infirm slaves upon their plan- 
tations — the old or sickly women, and 
the young children — and compelled the 
able-bodied slaves, the "prime hands," 
as they were called, to go with them to 



137 

the interior, or sold them in the States 
where slavery was yet regarded as safe. 
Many of these afterward escaped, and 
came into the employ of the Union forces 
in various capacities. But the feeble and 
infirm could not be suffered to perish ; 
and arrangements were made, under 
Government direction, to employ such of 
them as were able to work, on the plan- 
tations which had been abandoned, or in 
work in the vicinity of the camps, and to 
allow moderate rations for their suste- 
nance. It was found, however, very 
soon, that they needed clothing, superin- 
tendence, schools for the children, &c., 
&c. ; and while, so far as they were able, 
they were willing to pay moderate prices 
for these supplies, a considerable portion 
must be donated. Freedmen's Relief 
Societies were accordingly organized in 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincin- 
nati, Chicago and St. Louis ; and clothing, 
agricultural implements, books of instruc- 
tion, &c., &c., forwarded to them. The 
12* 



138 

Bible and religious publication societies 
appropriated large numbers of simple 
reading books, primers, and Testaments 
for their use, and the Missionary Societies, 
as well as the Freedmen's Relief Societies, 
sent teachers and missionaries among 
them. Schools were opened for all who 
would attend (and this included nearly 
all the freedmen, from three years old to 
eighty), at Washington, Norfolk, New- 
born, Hilton Head, Beaufort, Fernandina, 
New Orleans, Vicksburg, Milliken's 
Bend, Memphis, and elsewhere. In this 
work the Western Sanitary Commis- 
sion has borne a noble part. Its Presi- 
dent, Judge Yeatman has for more than 
six months past devoted almost his whole 
time to the investigation of their condi- 
tion and wants and to devise means for 
their employment at fair wages, and with 
humane treatment. In January of the 
present year, he prepared, in connection 
with Mr. Mellen, agent of the Treasury 
Department, such regulations for leasing 



139 

abandoned plantations, as will secure to 
the frecdmen just compensation and 
kind care, In the autumn of IS63, 
special contributions of clothing, &c., 
were solicited for the thousands of 
freedmen and their families, in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, who were too old and 
infirm, or too young, to be able to 
work (the able bodied men and women 
having been either employed in the army 
or driven off by their rebel masters). The 
appeal was made at the instance of Gen. 
Grant, and met with a hearty and grati- 
fying response. In all about $382,000 
have been contributed for the relief and 
instruction of the freedmen. 

The large numbers of emancipated 
slaves who have come into our lines since 
the promulgation of the President's proc- 
lamation, and their docility and eager- 
ness to do all they can for their own sup- 
port, and for the Government which has 
emancipated them, has rendered a special 
Department of Government necessary 



140 

for the management of affairs connected 
with them. The Freedmen's Relief So- 
cieties have accordingly urged the erec- 
tion of a Freedmen's Bureau upon Con- 
gress, and a bill for its organization is now 
before that body. 

In July, 1863, a mob, composed prin- 
cipally of the most degraded portion 
of the population, ravaged New York 
for four days, committing highway rob- 
bery, arson, and murder at will. The 
pretext for their atrocious brutality was 
the attempted enforcement of the draft • 
the real motive which actuated their 
leaders was hostility to the Grovernment. 
This mob were guilty of the most horrible 
acts of cruelty toward the people of color 
of the city. Peaceable, unoffending 
negroes were hung, drowned, beaten to 
death, and their houses sacked and burned 
by these incarnate fiends. This cruel 
persecution of a quiet and inoffensive 
people induced a decided reaction of feel, 
ing in their favor on the part of the 



141 

citizens generally. The sum of S42,600, 
beside clothing to the value of many 
thousands of dollars, was promptly con- 
tributed for their relief, and $-55,000 more 
was subscribed for the benefit of the po- 
licemen or their families who had been 
injured in putting down the riot. Other 
contributions to a considerable amount 
were subsequently made for the relief of 
the colored children and others who were 
sufferers by the riots. 

The Unionists of the Southern States, 
many of whom had suffered everything 
but death, and thousands death itself, at 
the hands of the rebels, also claimed 
Christian charity and aid at the hands of 
their brethren at the North. They were 
deserving of it ; many of them had ad- 
hered, with a love stronger than death, 
to the old flag, and had been loyal when 
all around them were drawn away by the 
specious pleas of the leaders of the rebel- 
lion. They had taken calmly, even joy- 
fully, the spoiling of their goods, and had 



142 

welcomed most heartily the advent of the 
Army of Freedom ; but intensely loyal as 
they were, they were naked and starving, 
and the relief which the army could afford 
them was but slight. The appeals made 
in their behalf were responded to with 
cheerfulness, and in New York, Boston, 
and Philadelphia nearly $150,000 in money 
and clothing, in large amounts, were con- 
tributed to their relief. The Government 
has taken measures to supply, as far as 
practicable, the more urgent wants of 
these deserving citizens, and to mitigate 
their sufferings. 



143 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Aid TO SUFFERERS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. — ThE LANCA- 
SHIRE AND Derbyshire operatives. — The Irish suf- 
ferers.-The French operatives.— Other movements 
OP philanthropy.— The Allotment system in the 
ARMY. — The National Cemeteries at Gettysburg, 
Chattanooga, Stone River, and Antietam.— The 
impulse given to Home and Foreign Missionary 
operations and to other benevolent enterprises.— 
The canceling of church debts, raising of Cler- 
gymen's salaries, erection of new churches, &c.» 
&c. — Conclusion. 

There was still another appeal to the 
sympathies of the nation, and this time 
from over the sea. The sudden falling off 
of imports from England and France, at 
the commencement of the war, leaving 
many of the manufacturers, for a time, 
without a market for their goods, occa- 
sioned much embarrassment and many 
failures among them ; and before the sur- 
plus of goods had been exhausted, the 
rapid* rise in the price of cotton, resulting 
from the necessary state of blockade, ren- 
dered production unprofitable, and the 



144 

subsequent scarcity of that staple made 
it impossible to keep the mills employed. 
Under these circumstances, nearly four 
hundred thousand of the operatives in the 
cotton mills of Lancashire and Derby- 
shire, and those dependent upon them, 
were thrown out of employment, and soon 
began to suffer from starvation. They 
bore up bravely under their privations as 
long as it was j)ossible ; and fully satis- 
fied that the war in this country to put 
down a rebellion caused by, and based 
upon slavery, was a just one, they stead- 
ily refused to throw the blame of their 
sufferings upon the United States Govern- 
ment, though often solicited to do so by 
English sympathizers with the South. 
Their condition was daily growing more 
desperate ; and though subscriptions for 
their relief were made in England to the 
amount of $9,000,000 or $10,000,000, 
there was still a large amount of suffering 
to be relieved. The loyal American peo- 
ple felt that it was due to themselves that 



145 

they should manifest their hearty sympa- 
thy with their brethren in distress, espe- 
cially since that distress had grown, in 
part at least, out of the inevitable conse- 
quences of the war, and those who were 
the chief sufferers from it had been their 
firm friends under the most trying cir- 
cumstances. The movement for sending 
aid to them was hailed with joy in al 
quarters ; contributions poured in from 
all the principal cities, and from country 
towns as well. 

An eminent shipping house offered a 
new^ and caj)acious vessel, to bear the 
gifts of the nation to England ; it was 
soon freighted and dispatched, but could 
not carry all that w^as offered. The Corn 
Exchange freighted (in part) another ves- 
sel, and a considerable amount was for- 
warded in bills of exchange. Philadel- 
phia also contributed a ship-load of pro- 
visions to these sufferers. The aggregate 
amount contributed for the relief of the 
Lancashire and Derbyshire operatives, 
13 



146 

was about $252,000. A few thousand 
dollars were also contributed for the 
French operatives of the Department of 
Seine Inferieure, Rouen, &c., who were 
suffering, though in a less degree. 

But the charities of the nation did not 
stop here. No sooner were supplies for- 
warded to the English operatives, than it 
was found that extensive suffering and 
incipient starvation were threatening a 
large portion of the manufacturing dis- 
tricts in Ireland, and that but little aid 
was bestowed upon them by the English 
Government or people. The Irish people 
were bound to lis by strong ties; they 
had offered their services freely for the 
war, and on every battle-field they had 
proved their valor and shed their blood. 
We could not turn a deaf ear to their ap- 
peals for help, and again, and up to the 
present time, contributions have flowed 
in liberally for their assistance, and more 
than $120,000 have been raised for their 
relief. 



147 

Our volunteer soldiers have not been 
unmindful of the responsibilities which 
the nation's trust and large-hearted liber- 
ality has imposed on them. An Act of 
Congress has been passed providing that 
the soldier may, under certain regulations 
which render fraud impossible, allot such 
portion of his pay as he desires for the 
benefit of his family, or those dependent 
upon him ; and in several of the States, 
citizens of the highest character and stand- 
ing have given their services without fee 
or reward as commissioners, to visit the 
regiments, and procure from the men 
allotments for their families. In the State 
of New York, as a result of this effort, 
over $3,000,000 per annum is thus for- 
warded to soldiers' families ; in several 
of the other States, the amount, though 
smaller, is in about the same proportion 
to troops they have in the field. In the 
aggregate, more than $25,000,000 per 
annum is thus saved from the greed of the 
sutlers, or the rapacity of the gamblers, 



148 

and other harpies, who always follow ati 
army to plunder its soldiers. 

The proposition to consecrate a Na- 
tional Cemetery for the heroes who fell at 
Gettysburg, was welcomed most heartily 
throughout the loyal States, and the Legis- 
latures of the several States, as well as 
citizens in all quarters, have contributed 
liberally to the fund necessary for its com- 
pletion and adornment ; and similar mea- 
sures are in progress for gathering, in ap- 
propriate graves, with the only honors a 
nation can bestow, the gallant dead of 
Antietam, Stone Eiver, and Chattanooga. 
On the monuments which shall crown 
those heights, and stand as sentinels over 
the mighty and heroic dead, future ages 
shall read the names of those who loved 
their country's honor and freedom better 
than life. 

Amid all these demands upon the libe- 
rality of a noble and generous people, it 
is a fact of deep interest, that no one of 
the charitable organizations of a peaceful 



149 

time has ):>een stinted ; the orphan asy- 
lums, homes for the friendless, asylums 
for the aged and indigent, the dispensa- 
ries, infirmaries, and hospitals, the asso- 
ciations for the relief of the poor, and all 
those charities which have their claims 
upon the public, alike in times of peace 
and war, have been abundantly supported, 
and many new ones for the relief and 
maintenance of the children of deceased 
or disabled soldiers, or for giving to the 
crippled soldier himself a home, where he 
may spend the evening of life in quiet and 
comfort, have sprung up, and received 
large contributions. The great religious 
societies, whether national or denomina- 
tional, have had a larger income than in 
times of peace ; schools and colleges have 
been amply supported, and many of the 
latter liberally endowed;* the salaries of 

* Yale College has received endowments to the 
amount of more than half a million, of dollars since 
the commencement of the war, and many other col- 
leges and universities sums varying from $50,000 to 
$300,000. 

1.3* 



150 

the clergy have been very generally in- 
creased, and in hundreds of instances 
debts, which had crippled the activity and 
impaired the usefulness of churches and 
congregations, have been j^aid off during 
the past year. 

In this hasty sketch of the charities 
evoked by the war, we have necessarily 
omitted all mention of many of the ac- 
tive organizations which have devoted 
themselves to the welfare of the soldiers ; 
and have, of course, been unable to give 
even an approximate statement of the 
vast amount contributed directly by in- 
dividuals to the objects of their bene- 
ficence. We have, however, as we be- 
lieve, demonstrated conclusively, that, 
neither in ancient nor modern times, has 
there been so vast an outpouring of a 
nation's wealth for the care, the comfort, 
and the physical and moral welfare of 
those who have fought the nation's bat- 
tles or been the sufferers from its condition 
of war. 



151 

While then, iu this regard, the record 
of the United States is one which con- 
fers the highest honor upon its humanity, 
its phiLanthropy, and its patriotism, it is 
yet, when viewed aright, no matter of 
surprise that the nation^al heart should 
have been thus stirred to its innermost 
depths ; for never, in the history of the 
human race, was there a rebellion so ut- 
terly unjustifiable in its character ; or 
which, aiming at the subversion of a 
benign Government, only that it might 
rear upon its ruins a despotism, having 
slavery for its corner-stone, was so well 
calculated to call forth the scorn and ab- 
horrence of all good and honorable men. 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



Note. 

been necessary, in some instances, to estimate the 
amounts contributed by small societies, individuals, 
&c., in the aggregate. "Wherever this has been ne- 
cessary, it has only been done after the most careful 
inquiry and investigation, and a comparison of the 
views of cautious and well-informed persons, and the 
lowest estimate has invariably been taken. It is be- 
lieved, therefore, that the amounts are, in nearly 
every case, below the actual sums contributed. 



Tabular Statement of the Contrihutions for vari- 
ous purposes^ connected^ directly or indirectly^ 
with the War, to February, 1864. 



Amount expended by the States 
for the ei[wijyment and mainte- 
nance of troops not reimbursed, 
or guaranteed to be reimbursed, 
by the Gsneral Government : 



Maine , . . . . 

New Hampshire (estimated) 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island , 

Connecticut 

New York , 

New Jersey (estimated) 

Pennsylvania , 

Ohio (estimated) , 

Indiana 

Wisconsin 

Iowa 

Kansas 



Carried forward. 



$40,000 CO 

60,000 GO 

75,000 00 

1,963,311 88 

605,847 74 

392,900 94 

8,340,943 00 

251,320 03 

1,<148,000 00 

1,600,000 00 

450,000 00 

250,000 00 

420,000 00 

40,000 00 



$10,937,323 59 



153 



Brouglit forward 




Aggregate. 
$10,937,323 59 


II. Bounties, Extra Pay, and Al- 
lowance to Families ff Volun- 
teers, made by States : 

Maine . .... 


$4,000,000 00 

1,225,000 00 

2,000,000 00 

7,625.436 00 

2.668 ;3o0 00 

4,169,767 84 

13,562,947 00 

1,800,000 00 

100,000 00 

5,000,000 00 

3.000,000 00 

1,400,000 00 

720 000 00 

314,000 00 


New Hamp-shire (estimated) 












Connecticut 








New Jersey (estimated) . , . 








Ohio 








Michigan . , 








Iowa 






47,585,500 84 


m. Moneys contributed by Cities, 
Towns, Corporations, and Indi- 
nduals, for raising and re- 
cruiting regiments, aside frovi 
bounties and relief to Families: 

In 1861 


7,120,000 00 

16,150.000 00 

8.360,000 00 

2,600,000 00 


In 1862 




In 1863 




In January and February, 1864... 




IV. Bounties and Aid to Families 
of Volunteers, contributed by 
Counties, Towns, Cities, Corpo- 
rations, and Individuals in 
each State : 

Maine (estimated) 


1,260,000 00 
860,000 00 
,000,000 00 

1.815,285 30 
943,825 06 

3,746,360 00 


34,230,000 00 


New Hampshire 




Vermont 




Massachusetts ... 




Rhode Island 




Connecticut 








Carried forward 


$10,625,470 36 


$92,752,824 43 



154 



Brought forward 

New York 

New Jersey (estimated) 

Pennsylvania (of which Philadel 
phia contributed over flvo mil 
lion dollars) , 

Delaware 

Maryland , 

Ohio (estimated) 

Indiana , 

Illinois 

Michigan (estimated) 

Wisconsin , 

Iowa 

Minnesota (estimated) 

Missouri (estimated) 

Kansas 



V. State Contributions for Sick and 
Wounded Soldiers, Governors' 
Contingent Fund or Special 
Appropriations. 

Maine 

Vermont 

Massachusetts ,, 

Connecticut 

New York 

Maryland 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 

Iowa 

Minnesota (estimated) 

Missouri 



VI. Contributions of States to Na- 
tional Defense, not included 
under any of the foregoing 
heads : 



Maiue, for harbor defenses. 
Carried forward 



510,625,470 36 
27,155,272 83 
4,300,000 00 



12,200,000 00 

60,000 00 

800,000 00 

10,750,000 00 

3,500,000 00 

4,720,000 00 

1,350,000 00 

2,135,000 00 

1,250,000 00 

150,000 00 

500.000 00 

100,000 00 



$25,000 00 
40,000 00 
35,400 00 
28,641 00 

250,000 00 
10,000 00 

10), 000 00 
69,000 00 
48,000 00 
40,000 00 

100,000 00 
20 000 00 
50,000 00 



$200,000 00 



$200,000 00 



Aggregate. 
$92,752,824 43 



79,595.743 19 



816,041 00 



$173,164,608 62 



155 





$200,000 00 

1,500,000 00 

1,000,000 00 

3.500,000 00 

1,800,000 00 

140,000 GO 

700,000 00 
1,000,000 00 

2,500,000 00 
2 JO ,000 00 

500.000 00 


Aggregate. 
$173,164,608 62 


Massachusetts, for harbor and 
coast defenses, and State war 


New York, for harbor defenses, 
&c 




Pennsylvania, for harbor defenses 

and protection from invasion.. 

Ohio, for protection of river line.. 




Maryland, for Home Guards, and 
to repel invasion 




Kentucky, for Home Guards, &c. . 

Missouri, for Home Guards and 

State Militia 




Iowa for border defense 




Minnesota, for defense against In- 
dians 






13,040,000 00 


VII. Omtributions by Individuals 
or Associatif/ns, for the general 
purposes of Naiinnal Deftme, 
t£c. , not enumerated above • 

Cornelius Vanderbilt, New York. 
The steamship "Vanderbilt" 
presented to the Government — 


$800,000 00 
25,000 00 
30,000 00 

150,000 00 


W. H. Aspinwall — Commissions 
presented to the Government.. 

Other individuals — Commissions, 
&c. , donated 




Loyal Leagues — Cash raised for 
organization of colored regi- 
ments, &c 


1,005,000 GO 


Total contributions from States, 
counties, towns, cities, corpora- 
tions, and individuals, for aid 
and relief of soldiers and their 
families, and for purposes of 
national defense ,not reimbursed , 
or to be reimbursed, by the Gen- 




eral Government 


$187,209.608 62 



156 



Vin. Contributions for the Care arul 
Comfort of Soldiei's, whether in 
Camp, or Sick and Woundal, 
and for their Families, from 
Associations and Individuals : 

United States Sanitary Commis 
siou, in money 

Teceip s from fairs in Brooklyn, 
Albany ,Poughkeepsie, and Yonk 
ers, not yet paid over — about,. 

United Sta't'js Sanitary Commis- 
sion — Supplies — estimated value 

Philadelphia Branch of Sanitary 
Commission, not included in 
above 

Cincinnati Branch, not included in 
above, about 

Northwestern Sanitary Commis- 
sion (Chicago Branch) 

Western Sanitary Commission — 
in money and supplies, esti 
mated value by officers of Com 
mi?-sion 

Iowa State Sanita'-y Commission — 
money and supplies 

Indiana State Sanitary Commis- 
sion — money and supplies 

Illinois Commissioner - General — 
money and supplies 

United States Christian Commis- 
sion—in money 

United States Christian Commis- 
sion — supplies 

New England Soldiers' Relief As- 
sociation — money 

New England Soldiers' Relief As 
sociation — supplies 

Ladies' Aid Society, Philadelphia 
— money 

Ladies' Aid Society, Philadelphia 
— supplies at. Home OfUce , "ant' 
sent to Secretary in the field. . . 

Soldiers' Aid Society, of Hartford. 
Connecticut — money and sup- 
plies 

Carried forward 



$1,33,628 28 

550,000 00 
7, GOO, 000 00 

135,000 00 
300,000 00 
130,000 00 

1.750,000 00 
175.500 00 
320,000 00 
450,000 00 
400,000 00 
700,748 36 

28,000 CO 
200,000 00 

19,380 00 

210.000 00 
75,000 00 



$13,569 256 64 



157 



Brought forward . 

Union Relief Association, of Balti- 
more, and other Baltimore asso- 
ciations — in money 

Union Rehef Association, of Balti- 
more, &c. — supplies 

State Relief Associations at Wash 

ington — money and supplies 

Other relief associations, East and 
West, not connected with the na- 
tional organizations (estimated) 
Union Volunteer Refreshment Sa- 
loon, Philadelphia — money 

Union Volunteer Refreshment Sa 

loon, Philadelphia— supplies.. . 

Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon, 

Philadelphia — money 

Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon. 

Philadelphia— supplies 

Subsistence Committee, Pitts- 
burgh — money and supplies 

Citizens' Volunteer Hospital , Phila- 
delphia — money, labor, and sup 

plies 

State Soldiers' Deppt, New York 

city — money 

State Soldiers' Depot, New York 

city — supplies 

Other Soldiers' Homes, Rests, &c.', 
not connected with the Sanitary 
Commissions, in the principal 

cities 

American Bible Society aia'd its 
auxiliaries, bibles and testa- 
ments distributed to soldier? 

and to rebels 

American Tract Society, New 
York, for books and tracts dis- 
tributed to soldiers, and servi- 
ces of Missionaries and colpor- 
teurs 

American Tract Society, "Boston, 
for books and tracts distributed 
to soldiers, and services of Mis- 
sionaries and colporteurs 



Carried forward $16,920,765 96 



J $13,569,256 64 

80,000 00 

170,000 00 

1,030,000 03 

1,200,000 00 
40,000 00 
17,000 OO 
40,232 22 
15,000 00 
35,000 00 

23,047 25 
60,000 00 
10,000 00 

160,000 00 

300,000 00 



100,000 00 



Aggregate. 



70,229 85 



15S 



Brought forward 

Other religious societies, Mission- 
aries and publications 

Supplies and money distributed to 
armies iu Virginia and the de- 
partment of the South, and to 
hospitals inWashingtou, through 
individuals not connected with 
any of the National crganiza 
tious 

Money for postage, stationery, 
newspapers, books, and sup- 
plies, distributed to hospitals 
by private individuals not con- 
nected with National organiza- 
tions 

Supplies and money forw.irded to 
Western armies, camps, and 
hospitals, directly from towns, 
cities, and villages, and not 
passing through other organiza- 
tions 

Ambulances for sick and wounded, 
built and maintained by Phila 
dclphia firemen , 

Asylums and homes for disabled 
soldiers and for children of de 
ceased soldiers in New York 
and elsewhere 

Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions, asiile from contributions 
through the Christian Commis- 
sion 

Board of Trade, Chicago, for 
" Board of Trade Regiments". . . 

State Military Agents, in New York 
and Philadelphia 

Expenses in procuring the]mssage 
of the Ambulance Corps Bill 

Total of contributions for care and 
comfort of soldiers by associa 
tions and individuals 



$16,920,765 9G 


125,000 CO 


1,350,000 00 


1,200,000 00 


4.000,000 00 


20,600 00 


220,000 00 


128,000 00 



Aggregate. 



65,000 00 i 
12,000 00, 
3,500 00: 



$24,044,865 96 



159 



IX. Contrihutimis for Sufferers 
abroad. 

International Relief Fund, New- 
York, for Lancashire sufferers. . 
Corn Exchange Fund, for Lanca- 


$132,140 74 

60,000 00 

60,000 00 
8.000 00 

30,000 00 
30,0G0 00 
15,000 00 
45.0 -0 00 


Aggregatk. 


Philadelphia contributions for 




Relief of French operatives 

Ship-load of provisions for Irish 

suflferer.s, contributed by A. T. 

Stewart New York 




Contributions for Irish relief, in 
New York 




Contributions for Irish relief, in 




Contributions for Irish relief, else- 






$380,140 74 




$172,144 13 
150,000 00 
60,000 00 

42,600 00 
55,000 00 
150,000 00 


X. Contributions for Freedmen, 
Sufferers from the Eiois, and 
White Refugees. 

Freedmen's Relief Association, 
New York — money and supplies 

Other Freedmen's Relief Associa- 
tions and contributions 




Aid to Freedmen by Missionary 
Societies , &c 

Amount contributed to Merchants' 
Committes, New York, for re 
lief of cilored persons injured 
or robbed during the New York 




Amount contributed for Police in- 




Aid to white Union refugees from 
the South 






$639,644 13 











160 



Recapitulation. 

Total contributions from States, 
counties, towns, &c. , for aid and 
relief of soldiers and their fami- 
lies, and for purposes of National 
defense 

Total contributions for care and 
comfort of soldiers, &c. , by as- 
sociations and individuals 

Contributions for sufferers abroad. 

Contributions for Fr«edmen, suf- 
ferers from the riofi, and white 
refugees 



Amount of Philanthropic Result? 
of War 



$187,209,608 62 



24,044,865 96 
380,140 74 



639,644 13 



$212,274,25945 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 744 350 8 



